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

Premise:

• Tracking
• students
• teacher
• high-ability
• low-performing
• school politics
• rich-richer, poor-poorer
• consequences
• opportunities
• alternatives
• well developed curriculum
• constructive competitiveness
• punitive v. encouragement
• visualization
• student evaluation

Arguement:

• Oakes argues that teachers need to emphasize their own professionalism while intiating a more successfull and condusive learning enviroment for students of either high or low performance, to bring low students up and increase the participation of high performing students with the rest of the student body.

Evidence:

• "working with their communities, school staffs can desing changes that are compatible with school goals and also politically mangageable." (p. 181)
• "creating constructive alternatives to tracking presents technical as well as political problems. Despite promising research finding abotu heterogeneous grouping, little is likely to be accomplished by simply mixing students up." (p. 179)
• "...classroom knowlege that remains connected to its larger context is much easier for student to understand and use." (p. 180)

Questions/Comments:

• when i was in middle school we had a tracking system, but "only the teachers knew how it worked". They didn't use straight alphabet but all the students did was try and figure what level they were. Are we in the top 3? Why we cared, i dont know but it was a constant preoccupation to be better.
• even without tracking, what about the special education or remedial children who need resource class. Then even withough tracking those kids who have disorders taht need help are still singled out. Any system needs constant work, b/c even with inclusion models, all the children know who the teacher is focused on... but i digress...