Tracking:Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

JEANNIE OAKES

Context/Premise:

• schools
• students
• classrooms
• high-ability
• low-ability
• learning opportunities
• differences
• alternatives

Argument:

Oakes argues that the tracking system in schools is only affective in high-abilty classrooms. Students placed in lower-ability classes are not recieving the same learning opportunities.

Evidence:

"Sterotyped as "less-able" and have fewer opportunities to learn."

"Students who are placed in high-ability groups have access to far riched schooling experiences than other students."

"Students who need more time get less, those who have the most difficulty learning seem to have fewer of the best teachers."

Other Stuff:

I don't know if i agree or disagree with the idea of tracking. Being placed in a room filled with students who are educationally on the same page as you seems right. Being in a class where students are of different abilities could hold back the higher-abled students and loose the lower-abled ones.

On the other hand, mixing everyone together could help the low-abled students stay on track. Studies have show that "as children interact with their environment, they acquire cognitive abilities", and that higher-abled students do just as well in mixed classes.