Tracking:Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route by Jeannie Oakes was very interesting to me. This article was basically about how students are placed in classes in schools. This is can be a very controversial topic with parents because all parents want is their child to exceed, sometimes they have high expectations that their child can’t meet, almost a false reality, or just have the wrong knowledge about each placement.  Placement for a child is out of the child’s benefit educationally. Its meant to meet their needs and accommodate them so they can excel in their academics. Parents need to realize that the schools place their child in classes that they will benefit from.

For example in my field site, at Frank D.Spaziano there are children that should be in bilingual classrooms or should stay back a year. Now those are two perfect examples where parents should be more educated. The school recommends to send a child in a bilingual classroom because they think the child will learn and benefit more. Some parens refuse that choice because they want their child to learn english quick and right away which can not be good to the child’s education. The second example I mentioned was for the child to stay back. Parents look at this as a bad thing, which is not at all. Having your child stay back one year can be very beneficial and help the child excel.

These may not be the exact examples of placement that the article is referring too but they still are type of placement. In the article I came across a quote “Students who ate placed in high-ability groups and have access to far richer schooling experiences than other students.” This may be true but I feel like because those students have the intellectual ability. In the article, Jeannie Oakes wants to make it clear that education should all be equal placement wise, placement is critical to learning , and the teachers with a good curriculum have an effect on academic learning.