Talking Points #8

Tracking: Why Schools Need To Take Another Route
By: Jeannie Oaks

1. "Many express particular concern about tracking's effects on poor and minority students, who are placed in low-ability groups more often than other students and are less likely to be found in programs for gifted students or in college preparatory tracks (pg.1)." I agree with this quote greatly because of personal experience in the past. I went to La Salle Academy, but I got accepted into the .2T program which stood for .2 transition program. I had to go to La Salle the summer before my freshman year from a month where I took some classes (in order for them to help you transition from middle-highschool). .2T was "lower level" compared to .1. .2A. .2T which I was in consisted of students from different backgrounds, and poor kids who wanted a "chance" to better themselves. I was the only upper middle class white person in this program. But these classmates, became my closest friends over the four years. I never realized that .2T consisted of so many minooritys until I actually thought about it. I guess I never realized it before because it was never an issue.

2. "Moreover, the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability groups bave access to far richer schooling experiences than otber students (pg.1)." If you seperate students based on assessments and what level class room "you think" they should be placed in, are you really helping the child? Answers differ, but Id say no. I believe in diverse classrooms in everyway possible, one way being having children with different learning abilities that way they can help and grow off of one another. Those who are placed in the higher classrooms, have a better chance of going further in life which I dont think is far. Place all kids in the same classroom, allow them varities of learning techniques and let them strive to their full potential. In my highschool, if you were in .1 you were basically going to a D1 college, where as if you were placed in .2T, you felt as though you werent 'as good" or smart as the .1 studets and a commmunity college or D3 college would be your best bet. Now is that fair?


3. "For example, in average classes, many teachers expected. relatively little ofstudents. They established set routines of lecturing and doing worksheets,
held time and workload demands (both in class and for homework)to a minimum. accepted and sometimes even encouraged distractions,and rarely asked students 10 think. deeply or critically. When classes are conducted in this way, average students, too, are deprived of the best that schools have to offer (pg.2)."
Teachers who assign worksheets and overload homework, im my opinion, arent allowing students to become what they could be. Students are going to feel bored, stressed, and just not WANT to work hard. Whereas if your teacher hardly passed out overload worksheets, and instead had discussions, group work, hands on activities, open ended questions- wouldnt that make students want to do their best?

This reading has proven to me that my highschool was tracked, and still is. Do I agree with this? No. But everybody is free to their own opinion. I hope schools start to track less and instead give ALL students equal opporutnities to achieve whatever they put their minds to. Allow students to learn and "bounce" off of eachother.