Debate: Detracking

Debate, 3/3/16

Detracking: Question 1 - Answer

1. How do schools ensure that the voices of low- and middle-income families are included in discussions about detracking and the provision of educational equity in schools?

Schools can ensure that the voices of low- and middle- income families are included in discussions about detracking and the provision of educational equity in schools by welcoming any families who are of low- and middle-income in meetings before the school board make decisions having to deal with low and middle-income families on detracking and the provision of educational equity.

Detracking: Question 2 - Answer

2. How does detracking contribute to equal educational opportunity?

Detracking contributes to equal educational opportunity because it groups every type of student up together with each other no matter their SES, or race.

What is Detracking? Information About Detracking

Pros of Detracking

• Tracking is separating pupils by academic ability into groups for all subjects or certain classes and curriculum within a school. Detracking is the process of undoing this.
• Data in many schools show that the children of upper-middle-class families are overrepresented in high-ability programs for the gifted and talented and underrepresented in low-ability special education and general education courses.
• School officials are being pushed by the courts to change their practices that segregate students by SES or race.
• One of these remedies for eliminating these discriminatory practices is detracking, or dismantling tracks for students based on ability as determined by standardized tests or teachers' perceptions.

Cons of Detracking

Detracking: Question 3 - Answer

• Eliminates discrimination against students from low-income families and students of color
• Integrates students from different ability levels
• Encourages classroom instruction that is challenging and interesting for low-income as well as upper-middle-class students
• Supports a classroom environment in which high-ability students learn while assisting peers who may not be at the same academic level
• Provides low-SES students greater access to good teachers, improving their chances for learning at higher levels

Pros of Tracking

• Is not fair to high-ability students, who need to be challenged at advanced levels
• Makes it more difficult for teachers to provide appropraite instruction for all students, whose abilities differ greatly
• May lead to pressure from upper-middle-class parents, who may withdraw their children from public schools
• Waters down the curriculum for high-ability students
• Prevents high-ability students from participating in gifted and talented programs and advanced-level courses that will give them the advantage needed to be admitted to elite colleges and universities

Cons of Tracking

3. What other steps could school officials take to provide low-income students greater access to advanced courses?

To provide low-income students greater access to advanced courses, school officials could provide after-school programs for low-income students that teach them the skills they need to learn for more advanced classes. That way, students of low-income can have a much better opportunity to get into advanced-placement classes.

Detracking: History

• Instructional content can be tailored for the specific level of the group
• An ERIC Digest report by Carol Nelson states that tracking (ability grouping) for a particular educational purpose benefits students. (Education.seattlepi.com)
• Nelson's report found that students who were grouped in cooperative learning groups -- with heterogeneous ability rather than homogeneous ability -- developed skills in critical thinking competencies, positive social interactions, collaboration abilities and the ability to understand other perspectives. (Education.seattlepi.com)

Detracking: Controversy

• According to the NEA Research Spotlight on Academic Ability Grouping, detractors of tracking state that the lower learning groups are disproportionately filled with poor and minority students.
• Students in these lower groups receive lower quality instruction, which contributes to the achievement gap
• Author Anne Wheelock's research on ability grouping found that placement into ability groups is often based on a subjective view of intelligence. (Education.seattlepi.com)
• Once students enter an ability group, they are likely to remain in that ability group for the duration of their academic career

Debate: Detracking

Presentation by Erika Clesi

Mrs. Hill Period 6

3/4/16

• Tracking was once popular in English-speaking countries, but is less used now.
• Tracking systems formed the basis of the Tripartite System in England and Wales until the 1970s, and in Northern Ireland until 2009.
• Germany uses a tracked system. In Germany, students' achievements in their last of generally four years of primary school determine the type of secondary school they will be permitted to attend, and therefore the type of education they will receive.
• A tracking system has been in place since the advent of modern education in the Netherlands.
• After it was relaxed in the 70s and 80s, the tracking system has been gaining substantial strength again since the late 1990s.
• Weak tracking systems have been used in American schools.

• Some teachers and middle-class parents resist the move to a single track because students from different ability groups will become mixed
• Some people believe that detracking will lead to a lower quality of education overall

This leads us to the pros and cons of both detracking and tracking.

Detracking in Education

References (Pt. 1)

Detracking: Question 4 - Answer

Presentation by Erika Clesi

References (Pt. 2)

4. What are your reasons for supporting or not supporting detracking strategies in schools?

I do support detracking, because I believe all students should have equal opportunity to get placed into advanced-placement courses (nevermind their SES or race).

However, at the same time, I do not support detracking because some students may not be adept as others for advanced-placement classes, and that may cause the curriculum to become watered-down, slowing down students who already have a good understanding of it, in order for all students to be at the same pace and on the same page.

Hallinan, Maureen. "The Detracking Movement - Why children are still grouped by ability" http://Educationnext.org. Web-only content Copyright © 2015 President & Fellows of Harvard College, N.d. Web. 4/3/2016. <http://educationnext.org/the-detracking-movement/>.

Rosenbaum, James. "If Tracking is Bad, is Detracking Better" Aft.org. American Educator, Winter 1999-2000 American Federation of Teachers, N.d. Web. 4/3/16. <http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/TrackingWint99_00.pdf>.

Burris, Carol & Garrity, Delia. “Detracking for Excellence and Equity” Ascd.org. © 2016 ASCD. All Rights Reserved., N.d. Web. 4/3/16. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108013.aspx>.

Yettick, Holly. “Devil Is in the Details When It Comes to Tracking, Detracking” Blogs.edweek.org. © 2016 Editorial Projects in Education, 21/3/14. Web. 4/3/16. <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2014/03/algebra_for_all.html>.

Detracking: Question 1

Burris, Carol & Welner, Kevin. "Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracking" Colorado.edu. Copyright of Phi Delta Kappan, N.d. Web. 4/3/16. <http://www.colorado.edu/education/sites/default/files/attached-files/Burris%20&%20Welner_Closing%20the%20Achievement%20Gap.pdf>.

UCLA. "Tracking and Detracking" Idea.gseis.ucla.edu. © 2014 UC Regents, N.d. Web. 4/3/16. <http://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/projects/past-projects/tracking-and-detracking>.

N.n. “Tracking (education)” En.wikipedia.org. N.p., N.d. Web. 4/3/16. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_(education)>.

Domina, Thurston, Penner, Andrew, Penner Emily, & Conley, AnneMarie. “Does Detracking Work? - Evidence from a Mathematics Curricular Reform” Eeducation.uci.edu. Departments of Education and Sociology University of California, Irvine, 8/11. Web. 4/3/16. <http://education.uci.edu/person/domina_t/docs/8thgradealgebra.pdf>.

1. How do schools ensure that the voices of low- and middle-income families are included in discussions about detracking and the provision of educational equity in schools?

Detracking: Question 2

2. How does detracking contribute to equal educational opportunity?

Detracking: Question 3

3. What other steps could school officials take to provide low-income students greater access to advanced courses?

Detracking: Question 4

4. What are your reasons for supporting or not supporting detracking strategies in schools?