High Standards in a Tracked System of Schooling: For Which Students and With What Educational Supports?
Weinstein, R. S., (1996). High Standards in a Tracked System of Schooling: For Which Students and With What Educational Supports? Educational Researcher, 25(8),16-19.
Abstracted by Barbara Higgins-Dover
In 1996 the National Education Summit participants endorsed a program of tough state and local standards for the public school system. The emphasis was on all students reaching their highest potential. The idea was to set clear academic standards while monitoring student progress, and school accountability. Beliefs and teaching methods that lower student expectations and water down the curriculum must be changed to incorporate greater learning challenges for all students.
Incomplete Vision: Very little attention has been paid and is crucial in helping all children reach higher set standards. Expectations for change will not naturally produce higher standards for all children without attention being given to effective teaching practices. We need methods to engage educators and communities with a complete revision of all beliefs, practices, and policies requiring staff development, systematic support, and adequate time frames for implementation.
Tackling our Tracked System of Education: Children in Kindergarten through 12th grade experience "different educational pathways" reflecting accommodation to perceived abilities or special needs. These can include school readiness, age-grading, retention, ability-based instructional grouping, special education need and many other perceived abilities. These assignments have been found to reflect racial, class, and gender groupings even when controlling differences in ability. "Poor children, ethnic-minority children and girls in math and science are often the recipients of lowered expectations." Once placement occurs, children experience limited mobility with different curricular exposures. There is "compelling evidence" that when students are placed higher and given appropriate supports, they are capable of meeting the challenge. Despite this, some suggest that kids are made less intelligent by placing them in slow or low achieving groups. Thus, researchers are asking for a dismantling of such processes in schools and for implementation of greater equality.
Rigorous Standards and Diverse Educational Supports: Due to shifts in demography (increased immigration) and decreased socioeconomic family status, the need is even greater to differentiate teaching methods without lowering educational goals for diverse groups of students. In addition, changes in youth to adult ratios mean that fewer children will carry a greater responsibility for our increasing elderly population. Societal changes such as these require teachers to use more effective and flexible planning strategies. By creating equality in learning environments we can provide more inclusive and challenging schools for all children.
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