5.3 Selectivity and Diveristy
Here is a suitable thesis for a term paper: Selectivity and diversity are competing priorities in the history of American public education.
On paper, California’s student body is incredibly diverse. On closer inspection, it is well sorted. Throughout childhood, students grow accustomed to being sorted, or to sorting themselves: by age, by gender, by height, by neighborhood. Not so long ago, students were explicitly sorted by race; today the sorting persists by zip code or community, often with similar effect.
Schools also sort students academically. Most colleges and some high schools are selective; students must demonstrate their ability and commitment to gain admission. Advanced Placement courses are generally seen as the academic equivalent of making the varsity team. Few schools aspire to qualify all students for varsity. Within schools, most students choose, fall into, or are directed into tracks: college-bound, job-bound, military, gangs. This sorting does not generally spring from malevolent intent. But it happens nonetheless. (Those with an hour to commit to learning about the arguments for and against “tracking” may want to check out a well-prepared debate on the subject.)
Some schools intentionally reduce diversity as part of their educational strategy. Gifted And Talented programs (GATE) attempt to identify students with exceptional academic promise and provide extra learning opportunities for them. Schools have differing strategies about how to educate students with learning difficulties; some emphasize support of special education needs through separate classes. Others emphasize “main-streaming” strategies to incorporate high-functioning special ed students into classes with other students their age.
Single-gender schools attempt to boost academic focus by simplify the social framework for their students. The available evidence suggests that, all other things being equal, there may be some merit to this theory. Some studies show academic achievement is generally higher in single-gender school classrooms than in co-ed ones, but like any research finding in social science, the validity of this conclusion can be disputed.
The next post will examine continuation schools and education in the juvenile justice system.
Next: 5.4 Continuation Schools
At Envision Schools, we avoid as much academic tracking as possible. We believe that a heterogeneous classroom and school promote better learning results for all learners. We have a full inclusion special education model that uses Response to Intervention (RTI) as a core general education strategy for addressing the diverse needs of all students. We recently began a pilot of a project-based approach to Advanced Placement (AP). ALL of our seniors are taking the course and the test! This is much more challenging but ultimately more rewarding for our teachers.
For a complete and convincing account of one school system’s success in this area, I highly recommend “Detracking for Excellence and Equity” by Burris and Gerrity (2008).
Available on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Detracking-Excellence-Equity-Corbett-Burris/dp/1416607080 (David — No reviews of this book are available on Amazon. Maybe you want to post one?)
Fascinating debate from AEI, at least for learning the issue. Although the two sides seemed to be talking past each other on the central concerns. The tracking tolerant side didn’t seem to offer any remedies for the fact that tracking leads to allocation of better curriculum and better teachers to the “higher” tracks. I don’t recall any denial of that as a fact either. But the detracking advocates didn’t seem to address the concern that traditionally grouped students can be very different in background. Perhaps making tracking the only practical solution when same age students are effectively grades apart.
As a kid, I was identified as highly gifted early on. For a while that meant I was given crossword puzzle and word search books. Often, I would be called on to tutor my peers. Since my gifted-ness didn’t carry over to social skills, this was a huge punishment. In some cases I was just given more work. No one understood that gifted didn’t just mean I could tackle more advanced work earlier and faster. It meant my brain worked differently. When I attended a racially and economically diverse magnet school, I finally found teachers and peers who understood. The curriculum and instructional strategies were tailored to help us expand and train our weird brains and academic success wasn’t ridiculed or stifled, as it all too often is in melting pot schools.
Grouping students with like interests and learning needs can be a great way to deliver high quality education in a more individualized way. As long as the placements are made thoughtfully and at the choice of the students’ guardians, more specialized educational environments can really work well.
I participated in the bussing folly of LAUSD 30 years ago (yeah, I’m ancient). Merely bussing kids across town did nothing to integrate the classrooms or lunch areas. However, in Magnet schools, which select students in a lottery basis in order to group students by interest or learning style, we actually shared classrooms, libraries, lunch pavilions and friends. It took away that awkwardnes and let us get to know eachother as people with similar interests– which is how friendships more naturally form.
Readers will be happy to know that Caprice’s social skills improved markedly.
The tension between grouping by learning needs (which permits some students to go faster if they are ready) and providing all students access to higher learning is quite real. A class of 35 students in today’s schools is a mix of readers and non-readers, students reading above grade level and students struggling with English, diligent learners, class clowns and that kid who always seems in a fog. Charismatic and deeply talented leaders can hold it all together, maybe, but this isn’t a configuration that just any teacher can pull off. I am heartened about some of the technology-based personalized learning solutions such as Khan Academy. Among other advantages, these seem to me to hold the promise of earlier second chances for students that find themselves left behind.