My mind has been racing with the tracking issue ever since our English 310 class had a great discussion on the subject. I always considered myself to be an open person on the topic, but when we started discussing I was surprised that I felt very strongly about the usefulness of tracking. I started to wonder why I felt this way, and I now I just had a very sheltered opinion on the subject. Sure, I have read numerous articles on the topic, but none that made me think as hard as the one I came across today. Actually, it is not an article per-say, but it is a radio commentary by a Curtis High School (Staten Island, New York) student named Jaimita Haskell. She took a stand against the system by pointing out a negative effect it had on her high school experience.
Jaimita admits that in middle school she was not the most motivated student and therefore she really didn’t take the time to think about what repercussions her effort and attitude would have on her future. So, upon entering high school she was placed in all of the mainstream classes. This is how she describes her classes:
But at Curtis, I was put into mainstream classes, where the challenge was focusing on my work while someone hummed a song they were listening to, or threw a paper at the teacher, or found out what happened on TV last night.
This is not the challenge that we would like our students to have. This was not her only issue. She also noticed the effort that her teachers were putting into the students in these mainstream classes. There is a major problem with this sad reality. Teachers may believe that when they are slacking on performance, students to not notice, especially the students who are in the low-track classes, but Jaimita proves that this is not true.
Like, when you’re in mainstream classes, like, teachers don’t care, like, if you’ve got it or not. Like they only see people that’s in the front, or something.
Next she talks about how when a teacher took interest in her, the results spoke for themselves. Her grades went up and she was recommended for an SIS History Class. This is the way she elaborates on her brief experience:
”It was a whole other habitat. I got this teacher, Mr. Buxbaum, who could turn your worst subject into your best one. We got brand new books that crackled when you opened them and everything. If there was a debate going on, they’d raise their hands and say, “Well, I can understand your opinion, but, In mainstream, they’ll be shouting about your baby’s mother’s sister by the time the discussion ends. I was liking Mr. Buxbaum’s class, doing my homework, participating, you know. (Sounds of noisy school corridors come up and continue beneath the next segment.) But just as I was getting started, I got kicked out. “
Jaimita got kicked out of the class because of an overcrowding issue. Since she was not in the entire tracked program, but was just in it for History, she was one of the first ones to go. This also happened to a close friend of hers. The move devastated her.
The day I find out I was dropped from the SIS program, I had a why attitude. Like, Why are you doing this to me?? I was mentally sick from the roller coaster. It brought me to the top, where I could see myself going to a good college. Then whomp-whomp it dropped me to the bottom, where I could see myself going nowhere.
Fortunately enough, Jaimita was no longer the type of student to sit back and let someone else control her education. She started researching the issue, and then created the radio broadcast. At this point her principle decided to do something about it and she was placed in the advanced placement program.
But what about the other students who are capable of the higher level work and just do not have the platform or are shy? I now see that with some of these programs students are falling through the cracks. Many are capable of a better education and they deserve a better education. It is not fair to put these students in mainstream classes as freshman because counselors and teachers do not believe they are college bound. The reality is that these students will not receive the best possible education and that is not right. Every student deserves a teacher that cares and is truly working for the benefit of all students, not just the labeled “smart” kids.
This story really made me think about the other students who did not get placed in the higher level classes. I was lucky enough to be able to be in any class I wanted to take, my grades permitted me. It is interesting to hearanother point of view of a student who was hurt by the system and did something about it. It makes me wonder how many other students there are, just like Jaimita. Students that are unchallenged and not believed in. How many students are the public school systems intellectually failing due to predetermined positions, lazy teachers, and “mainstream” education?
“Tracking in Schools”
Jaimita Haskell
Aired on WNYC Radio and NPR in October of 2002
I really like the fact that your article brought up the ideas of someone who was directly influenced by this tracking idea rather than an outsider simply commenting on the issue. I think what interests me the most about the idea of tracking is the way in which it is done. Sure, grades are often used and are understandably looked at as a measure of student quality (although often not a very good one in my opinion), but there are many situations in which teachers and counselers are hand picking their students. I don’t think it is too far of a stretch to say that in certain situations this is leading to racism, or judgment being passed on students due to their socioeconomic background. The idea that motivation can be the difference in a student’s academics is one that needs to be more widespread, something I see tracking successfully hiding from the public. I need to stop writing now. Nice post.
I also really thought that are discussion on this topic in our class was very interesting. I never really knew a lot about this before, I guess that it never really occured to me that tracking was going on in school. I just thought that students where being put in classes bye randome assingment. All except for the special AP classes that you had to apply for and get accepted too. I never realyl thought that the schedulers put students of the same academic level in class togther. It probably never occured to me becuase it never realyl affected me in school. I seem to also do well in all of the classes I was in, I had the qualifications to be in the special AP classes but I never applied becuase I figured I could get A’s in the regular class and not do as much work, it was great I pretty much just said through things. Anyway, I really think that students should not be “tracked” and that all students should be mixed in classes and things would work out better!
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Hey Candace-
I also thought the discussion on tracking was one of the most eye opening ones we had during the course of 310. I realized the issue existed, but I never realized how damaging and discouraging tracking could be for students. I also had the opportunity throughout high school to take whichever courses I pleased. This was mostly because the teachers and my school were strangely lenient with signing kids into AP courses. Basically, all I had to do was ask my Chemistry teacher if I could take the AP course, and he signed me up- completely unaware that I was a B-/C+ Chemistry 1 student. I did well in the AP class, but that is only because I was given the opportunity (which in many schools wouldn’t have been available to me). I really think students are capable of doing anything they put their minds to. I wasn’t a strong Chemistry student, but I really wanted to do well in that class- and I succeeded. In actuality, tracking classes is necessary based on the fact that many kids simply don’t have the drive to pass advanced classes. These kids could potentially hold more motivated students back (I could insert a really long NCLB argument right now, but that would be slightly off topic). The problem, however, emerges when tracking prevents motivated students from taking AP courses. The education system really needs to trust the student as an individual. Not allowing students to take AP courses is equally as wrong as it is to force students into taking AP classes. The tracking system is very, very flawed. Hopefully in time, younger generations of teachers will strive to fix these flaws, and ultimately even out the unfair advantages/disadvantages tracking poses for students.
Megan Roers