Advanced Coursework Is Good, But Old-Fashioned Tracking Is Not
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses the difference between offering rigorous coursework for all students and the harmful practice of sorting students into fixed ability tracks.
Key Takeaways
- Tracking locks students into fixed paths - Splitting classes into 'regular' and 'honors' sections limits opportunity based on early performance
- Advanced coursework should be available to all - Every student deserves access to challenging content, not just those pre-selected as 'advanced'
- High expectations drive achievement - Students rise to meet rigorous standards when given the opportunity and support
Transcript
I don't think tracking is a good idea.
I don't think it's a good idea to just split a class into regular and honors sections if it's the same course.
Because what happens is you lose the momentum and kind of the pacing that you need to teach grade level standards.
If you take all the high kids out and put them into, say, an honors section, I think we're always going to need more advanced coursework at the high school level, definitely, and probably at the middle school level as well.
So it's not like every class can be completely heterogeneous.
I think we're just going to have to offer different courses that maybe have prerequisites for more advanced work.
But the idea of just tracking, like old-fashioned tracking, a lot of people have been saying in my comments, hey, we need to bring back tracking so that we can teach kids who are at the same level.
I don't think that really gets the kids who are below grade level where they need to be on grade level standards.
I think those kids also need some form of intervention.
They need an extra support class.
They need an interventionist.
They need tutoring perhaps.
but simply teaching slower doesn't catch you up, right?
It does not catch you up if you're below grade level and then you're taught below grade level, you just fall further and further behind.
And I think splitting off more advanced students into an honors section just makes the other section harder and harder to teach, harder for the kids to keep up, And often behavior is worse as well.
Let me know what your experience has been with this.
But I feel like if you pull out the critical mass of top students, the vibe shifts, the center of gravity shifts in the class.
And it's just better to have heterogeneous classes in general.
Again, we still have to have advanced coursework.
We're still going to have classes that are kind of de facto tracked.
Like if there is an AP section that's pulling a lot of kids into a certain period, you're going to have other classes that are affected by that.
But I think tracking in general is a bad idea.
Let me know what you think.