Talking Points # 6 - Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

by Jeanne Oakes

The author argues that tracking in our schools, which groups low-ability students together and high-ability students together, may be helping the latter group, but does little for low-ability students, therefore, an alternative to tracking needs to be implemented.

• "Since so much of importance was omitted from the curriculum, students in the low-ability classes were likely to have little contact with the knowledge and skills that would allow them to move into higher classes or to be successful if they got there."

Low-track students receive less quality instruction and very little is expected of them by their teachers. They are often expected to simply memorize and repeat information, without being challenged. More class time is often spent on discipline than on instruction. They are viewed as being "less-able" and are given fewer opportunities to learn, therefore, few students improve.

• "The achievement gaps we observe among students of differing abilities are exacerbated by the failure of classrooms to provide all students with the time, opportunities, and resources they need to learn."

High-ability students seem to have more resources available to them, and more often, they have more attentive and more enthusiastic teachers than low-ability students. This contributes to the inevitable cycle: those students who need more help seem to get less, those who are more independent and self-sufficient, have an abundance resources at their disposal.

• "To be successful, heterogeneous classrooms probably need to lean toward placing students more in charge of their own evaluation--checking their own understanding and asking for and providing feedback."

When evaluating their students, teachers should ask "What did she learn?" instead of "How did she compare with others?" The teacher should compare the knowledge of the student before and after instruction, grades should then be based on the student's overall improvement, rather than how she compares with her classmates.

Although tracking seems to work for the high-ability students, providing them with resources, attentive teachers, and a more challenging curriculum, this practice leaves the average and low-ability students behind in the dust. It often labels these low-track students as "less able" and therefore, they are not given the instruction or the resources they need to succeed. Tracking is both a reaction to the differences between high and low-ability students and a contribution to them, therefore an alternative to tracking is needed. Students cannot simply be mixed up, they need to be taught how to work well with groups. The type of knowledge they are expected to learn needs to change, and student evaluations should be implemented. But one more thing is crucial: unless educators believe in the abilities of their students to learn, they will most likely be unsuccessful in creating an environment in which the students themselves believe in their ability, and are willing to devote the effort needed to succeed.