Keren Ong
Statement of problem:
Tracking in schools produce, reproduce, and perpetuate inequality in the classrooms and
in society. Lower income students and language minority students are often placed in the lower
tracks that prepare them for vocational jobs instead of the college prep classes that are offered to
the higher track students (Conchas, 476). It is assumed that these lower track students will not be
able to do well in college or achieve much academic success, so the classes they are offered are
geared towards them working once they graduate high school. In the current tracking system,
placement into tracks often is based off of race and social class with a large and unequal
representation of lower class and minority cultures in the lower classes and white middle class
students in the higher classes (Rubin, 649). Language is often tied to the distribution of privilege
in society because of how it is tied to identity (McCarty, 661, 666, Garcia, 82). Generally, the
people who speak a minority language are not from the United States and are not seen as being
fully integrated into this society yet. They generally come into the United States in order to fulfill
the American dream of working hard and moving up in society. English is therefore seen as the
language of modernity and social upward mobility by a significant amount of people including
language minority speakers (McCarty, 672). Because of this, minority languages are threatened
and language policy must also be created to prevent other languages from dying out (Garcia, 99).
The placement of language minority speaking students into lower tracks currently reflect the
value that many schools have of minority languages. Because these language minority students
are unable to speak English, they are seen as less capable of doing well in society and therefore
placed into lower tracks.
Furthermore, the focus on English Acquisition for language minority students actually
constrains what they can achieve (Billings, 386). Because these English Language Learners may
be separated from their peers and placed in classes specifically for English acquisition, they are
denied access to grade level content and highly prepared teachers (Billings, 386). The peers who
are in the regular classes also miss out on the opportunity to learn from the different culture of
the minority students.
Along with missing out on grade level content to focus on learning English, language
minority student also face unqualified teachers, inferior equipment, and peer groups that do not
necessarily support academic achievement in the lower tracks that they are placed in (Conchas,
476). Low teacher expectations of students lead to less challenging curriculum which does not
help the students academically. Research has shown that lower achieving students placed in
lower tracks often do worse academically than if they had been placed in a mixed class (Rubin,
650). This may be because low teacher expectations of these students prevent the teacher from
introducing new or challenging material. Low teacher expectation might also hurt the students’
self esteem and prevent them from trying harder in school if the authority figures in their lives
continually show them that they do not think they can succeed.
These lower achieving students end up adapting to these hostile learning conditions and
lower their aspirations about what they can achieve and their chances of social mobility in the
future (Foley, 388). It may seem like there is no reason to work hard if there are so many factors
working against the students’ success and teachers and a system that don’t care about them and
where they come from. They may see achieving academic success as selling out their own
cultural or racial heritage (Foley, 387). In order to prevent the perception of selling out, students
rebel against the majority culture and purposely do not work towards academic success. Conchas
quotes a research study where second generation Latino students reject schools and turn to youth
gangs (Conchas, 478). Peers in gangs may also negatively affect a student’s success in school.
The peer groups that students are a part of greatly affect the amount of time they spend studying
and eventual school success (Oseguera et al, 1156). As students go through school, peer groups
and friends are heavy influences on students’ behaviors and habits and a studious peer group
may positively influence a student in the same way that a rebellious peer group may negatively
influence a student’s success. The current system of tracking actually detracts from minority
students success and all of these factors contribute to the lower achievement of the lower track
students.
Proposal:
Provide grants for school districts to eventually detrack all subjects in their middle schools and
high schools over a 7 year period.
In the first year the policy is implemented, the students in the incoming 6th grade class will be
randomly assigned to detracked classes for all subjects. This will start the detracked program in
the school. After the first year, the 7th grade classes along with the 6th grade classes will be
detracked. Each grade that the first class of detracked students who started the policy enter will
be detracked. Each incoming grade level following the first class of detracked students will also
be detracked. When the first class of detracked students graduate, both the middle school and
high school will be fully detracked.
Provide funding for teacher training and professional in how to run a detracked program
Schools that apply for the grant must show evidence or reasonable belief that implementing a
detracked program for their school will benefit the students.
The purpose of this proposition is to:
1) how schools should work with families from diverse backgrounds in order to enhance
learning experience of their children. Increase parent participation and agency in schools.
Through teacher education and training, teachers will be taught to understand the immense
diversity of different immigrant cultures and learn appropriate steps to include the parents in the
schooling process. Teachers need to take into consideration the family’s work schedule, varying
family situations, and linguistic needs when working with the parents (Doucet, 2729). In general,
teachers are working with the system, speak English, and are in the position of teaching children
and thus have a position of power over the parents of the children who do not know how to
navigate the system and do not speak English. They will be educated about the power dynamics
that come when working with a parent and understand that sometimes a loss of power is
necessary to hear the voice of the parent to benefit the teaching of the child (Doucet, 2728). In a
detracked school program, the teacher will have to constantly be aware of the diversity of the
students and how they can include parents of the students in the learning process to better
enhance the learning experience for the students.
2) challenge stereotyped categories of students Counter misconceptions that language minority
speaking students are less capable of achieving academic success and need to be separated from
their peers and placed into separate classes for English acquisition. In Rubin’s case study of three
different high schools that implemented detracking, she confirms the correlation between teacher
expectation and student performance. In the school where teacher expectation of the students
were low and it was believed that the students were unmotivated, even in the detracked
classroom, there were multiple factors that prevented students from achieving academic success
like low curriculum and poor teaching (Rubin, 688). On the other hand, in a classroom where it
was expected that all of the students would go to college, the detracked classroom was
intellectually engaging and challenging while the quality of the instruction was boosted by the
different levels of students in the classroom (Rubin, 689). Unfortunately, this engaging and
challenging classroom was only accessible to the dominant white middle class students. Just like
in the study of the elementary school and the strand bilingual education program offered in
Palmer’s article, innovative and beneficial programs have generally been reserved for the benefit
of the dominant group of students (Palmer, 95,109). These case studies show that it is not the
students themselves that solely determine how well they do in school but is also based on teacher
beliefs and the policies surrounding their education. Palmer specifically calls for working with
the dominant and minority cultures in order to ensure equitable access for linguistic minorities
and dominant groups (Palmer, 110).
3) role of language in educational achievement of all students, educational achievement of
linguistic minority students Help ensure that typically low achieving students and students who
speak a minority language are offered the chance to an equitable education that provides rigorous
and challenging curriculum. Providing a multicultural teaching curriculum that benefits all
students in a detracked classroom including linguistic minority students requires the teacher to
find different styles of teaching to reach all students. As Heath studies different schools and the
different ways each group of students participate in literacy, she proves that there cannot be a
one size fits all students way of teaching. Understanding the different ways that each student
displays their knowledge and what they bring from their own cultural upbringing will ultimately
benefit all students as they learn from each other’s different ways of displaying knowledge
(Heath, 73). Banks also asserts that students should also “be given opportunities to investigate
and determine how cultural assumptions, frames of references, perspectives, and the biases
within a discipline influence the ways the knowledge is constructed,” (Banks, 11). Even as
students learn from each other about the different knowledge that they bring to the classroom,
students also need to be able to understand how their own knowledge they bring is affected by
their culture and other perspectives.
4) culturally responsive education to promote equitable access for all students Ensure that a
network of support is provided to students who are placed in a detracked program. Conchas uses
the term social scaffolding to describe the support necessary for minority students to increase
their chances for school success meant to familiarize students with organizational support
provided by the school (Conchas, 479). In providing a system of support where low achieving
students are put into relationships with high achieving friends and supportive teachers, the lower
achieving students will be able to gain the access and help they desire and raise their chances of
succeeding in school. This network should also reach across racial lines between the teachers and
their minority students to help students understand the resources available to them.
Challenges of Proposal: Highest achieving students do not do as well as they could with other
higher achieving students in a detracked program. Research has shown that high achieving
students do not achieve as highly as they could in a tracked class.
Requires teacher commitment to teaching a detracked classroom and coming up with a
challenging and rigorous academic curriculum.
Requires a change in teacher belief of minority and low income students.
Conclusion: The goal of this proposal is to mix different students from all backgrounds to
benefit all of the students. Teachers will need to implement many different teaching methods
based on the diversity of students to try to match the students’ cultural experiences with lessons
in the classroom (Banks). All of these different lessons and different ways of learning benefit all
of the students regardless of their own background (Heath, 73). Being exposed to different
learning methods ultimately help the students who are able to work and learn through many
different styles. This along with rigorous academic curriculum helps to raise teacher expectations
of students and student self-esteem and academic achievement.
Works Cited
Banks, J A. (1993). The canon debate
Billings, E. S., Martin-Beltrán, M., & Hernández, A. (2010). Beyond English Development
Conchas, G Q. (2001). Structuring failure and success
Doucet, F. (2011). (Re)Constructing Home and School: Immigrant Parents, Agency, and the
(Un)Desirability of Bridging Multiple Worlds
Foley, D. (2004). Ogbu’s theory of academic disengagement: Its evolution and its critics
García, O. 2012. Ethnic identity and language policy
Heath, S. B. (1982). What no bedtime story means
McCarty, T. L., Romero-Little, M. & Zepeda, O. (2006). Native American youth discourses on
language shift and retention
Oseguera, L., Conchas, G. Q., & Mosqueda, E. (2011). Beyond Family and Ethnic Culture:
Understanding the Preconditions for the Potential Realization of Social Capital
Palmer, D. (2010). Race, power, and equity in a multiethnic urban elementary school with a
dual-language "strand" program. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 41(1), 94-114
Rubin, B. C. (2008). Detracking in context