Post for Wednesday, October 19th - The ugly monster that is tracking

A worthwhile article:

NYCLU Asks for Police Department to Stop Policing Schools:

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2011/10/07/n-y-c-l-u-to-city-let-educators-handle-school-discipline/

Blog Post – October 19^th, 2011

The articles for this week focus on the notion of tracking and whether or not there is a system of inequity that is pervasive in these commonplace school practices. Instinctively, one would state yes, homogenous groupings are unfair and continue to perpetuate the cyclical system that delegates students of color into an academic career that will neither benefit or enhance society. Studies and statistics would confirm one’s instincts.

Waiting for Superman Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMjUSQk5WH4

The Waiting for Superman clip provides a visual representation of the ultimate impact of tracking systems within classrooms. Regardless of your bias in reference to the film, the consequences of this historically flawed mechanism is dire for students in fundamentally impoverished areas. Jeannie Oakes (1985) confirms this as she states, “every study that has considered the distribution of poor and minority students among track levels in schools. In academic tracking, then, poor and minority students are most likely to be placed at the lowest levels of the schools’ sorting system” (p.201). Tracking systems beg the question, which came first; low expectations for minority students or students’ low expectations of schools? Students often attend school with a pre-conceived perception of the teachers expectations. Consequently, students who are repeatedly told, directly or indirectly, they are incompetent, will grow to believe it. Thus said students will behave in a manner that adheres to what he or she believes the teacher expects of them.

Heterogeneous grouping into homogenous reading group

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRrhSfmdEU

Within the articles, there is a limited amount of information in regards to possible solutions for the inequities created by tracking. Adam Gamoran (1992) asserts that teachers are a fundamental key. In fact, he states, “at the secondary level, a few case studies suggest that low-track classes may serve their remedial purpose – that is, they allow students to catch up, or at least prevent them from falling further behind – under the following conditions:

- Teachers exert extra effort, compared to their efforts in other classes

- Teachers and students have opportunities for extensive oral interaction

- There is no procedure in place that assigns weak or less experienced to the lower track” (p. 197).

The clip above is provided as a suggestion for a feasible method for providing a curricular supplement to all of Gamoran’s suggestions. In fact, the aforementioned technique/clip allows for heterogeneous groupings with homogeneous internal groupings. This cultural shift creates a sentiment of equity that could motivate students to enjoy school.

Discussion Questions:

1. In your experiences, have you encountered any examples of tracking that were successful for students? What were the key elements of these systems?

2. Is there a pervasive undercurrent/rationale behind the excessive number of minority students that are present in lower tiered classes? Does this serve as a means for enforcing de facto segregation?

3. What are some practical solutions for reducing or eradicating the need for tracking?