Talking point #6

Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route by Jeannie Oakes

-kids
-stratergies
-talking
-classroom
-discussion
-opportunities
-ability
-tracking
-speed
-education
-priviledge

Premise:

Oakes argues that by labeling kids at such a young age it gives the impression that other kids have a better opportunity than other kids.

Evidence:

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

"To be successful, heterogeneous classrooms probably need to lean toward placing students more in charge of their own evaluation--checking their own understanding and asking for and providing feedback"

"These differences in learning opportunities point to fundamental and ironic school inequities. Students who need more time to learn appear to get less; those who have the most difficulty learning seem to have fewer of the best teachers"

Comments:

i like this article alot because i believe that students do not get the same education if they are divided. If certain kids are getting taken away to the class for "special help" then they are missing out on what everyone else is learning in the class. This article was very easy to understand and very easy to read. There were alot of good arugments in it as well.