"Educational Necessity vs. Social Ignorance"

Here's another Targum letter... I hate the 750 word limit... I always just want to continue on a tirade about all these educational issues.

The first time I heard about tracking in one of my obscure education courses, I was shocked that something that made so much sense could possibly be neglected or kept from being implemented on a school-by-school basis. I was truly baffled.

For those who are not familiar with tracking, this is a practice where schools keep track of student progress and properly place students into classes that they are capable of. So based on a student’s abilities in various subjects, they will be automatically given an appropriate schedule that should accommodate their academic abilities.

Those who oppose this practice will cite the racial and socio-economic segregation that ultimately occurs when you categorize students by their academic competencies. Also, the “big-brother” aspect of schools keeping academic data about individual students doesn’t satisfy those who oppose the invasion of academic privacy (if there is such a thing in high school). Other objections include creating limitations for student achievement by corralling students of similar academic abilities into the same classes. Despite the setbacks, there are many schools that would truly benefit by implementing tracking practices like in urban public schools.

Tracking students in places like the Bronx makes perfect sense because from school to school the student populations are homogeneous anyway. Many students are within the same socio-economic status (95% of the students at my school qualify for free or reduced price lunches). And the racial segregation is a silly argument since we racially segregate ourselves anyway as a society. It’s silly to argue that diversifying classrooms is a national priority when there are plenty of public schools that naturally segregate themselves to contain student bodies that are dominated by 3-4 ethnic groups. I am not saying that diversity in public schools is unimportant, but when there’s really only 2 dominant ethnic groups in your school (Black and Latin American), whether or not they end up in an AP Calculus class or in the remedial English class really doesn’t constitute a kick to the racial ego.

This is what we really need as educators. Not some silly legislation that creates a uniform standard for all students in America but a series of diagnostics that serves the needs of each student on various levels. Rather than using these high-risk assessments that determine graduation, we should use low-risk assessment to be used to properly place students where they’re more capable. The information you get from diagnostics are more valuable in terms of placing students in classes where they are capable and can make the most progress in those subject areas.

It’s almost common sense. By using this system of high-risk assessments, you’re basically telling students, “You’re either good enough or you’re just a failure.” I’m sure that’s a bigger kick to the ego than any racial or socio-economic segregation that occurs when you implement a school-wide tracking policy.

I feel like there is a cloud of ignorance that surrounds the general public about educational issues. It’s one of the biggest issues of the coming Presidential election and all the candidates can talk about are performance-based bonuses for teachers or NCLB. I think I’m more interested in educational policy than in the empty promises of some awful teacher incentive program to bribe me into voting for a particular candidate.

People fail to recognize that their experiences as students are no comparison to the perspective of being the teacher in the classroom. Students believe that they are under the pressure to pass and graduate but in reality, the teachers and the school are under even greater pressure to just pass students to keep from closing down.

Don’t get me wrong, teachers and schools need to be accountable for the practices they implement. However, it’s more important that students make progress and that their progress is properly nurtured, rather than hoping for educational miracles from all of my students.

It’s been frustrating this year listening to the vicious attacks that the general public has vocalized towards the struggling schools that aren’t given the necessary resources to succeed. Shouldn’t these schools be given the proper resources before they are judged to be failures? Before you judge a school, perhaps you should assess the school’s practices and the vital resources and funding that they’ve been promised, but denied time and time again.