Talking Points #6

Jeannie Oakes - Tracking : Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

This article is about..
Fairness
Students
Ability
Placement
Teaching

Oakes argues that there is a variety of unfairness in the schools due to the way children are placed in groups according to their ability's in the classroom.

1. "Growing numbers of school professionals and parents oppose tracking because they believe it locks most students into classes where they are stereotyped as "less abled" and where they have fewer opportunities to learn."

2. "Students in the low-ability classes were likely to have little contact with the knowledge skills that would allow them to m into higher classes or to be success if they got there."

3. "When curriculum is organized around the central themes of a subject area rather than around disconnected topics and skills, all students stand the greatest chance of enhancing their intellectual development."

I found myself able to relate a lot of this article. I can remember as young as elementary school when 'resource room' was introduced and students were taken out of their regularly scheduled classes to receive 'extra time' with class work or homework help. This became a big deal when reaching middle school because those students resource room time was now given during other classes such as art, home and careers, health, music and technology. These students were thought of as 'slow' and even refereed to as 'special ed.' Its good to give children extra help when they need it but to shelter them away from other activities is the wrong way to do it. There is so much they were forced to miss out on for a reason that isn't even there fault. If there are a decent amount of problem students, putting them all together is just causing the problem to grow. They see everyone in the class work the same way and continue on with the bad behavior. Also, putting all the 'high-ability' students altogether puts a lot more pressure on the students in there. They might feel as though they have to constantly compete with each other for the better grade so that they will not fall behind in the class. I can understand where they are coming from by thinking that this would be a good idea so that the teachers with the 'low ability' students can take extra time reviewing when necessary instead of wasting time when other students don't need extra time but iv learning from experience that this teaching method does not work. The outside life for children can be hard enough, learning should not have to be another problem they should have to worry about, it should already be exposed to them. Without bringing color or ethnic backgrounds into it i feel as though this is just another way to label and single out students.