Tracking in DCPS

[Anonymous]

It helps a lot in understanding DCPS to know about its history.

Despite what you might have learned in history class, when Brown vs. Board of Education was handed down in 1956 the schools didn't suddenly become desegregated. Prior to Brown, "separate but equal" in DC was heavy on the separate and light on the equal -- there were two complete school systems, black and white, with two sets of facilities, two sets of teachers, two administrations and two superintendents -- two of everything. After Brown, the white system resisted integration with the black system with every bureaucratic trick it could muster. The next 25 years were a series of moves and counter-moves, where the administration would throw up a barrier, black parents and students would take the system to court and a court order would be issued prohibiting the barrier, then the administration would throw up a new barrier and the cycle would repeat.

One such barrier was implementation of strict boundary rules that made it impossible to attend a school out-of-boundary, and then boundaries drawn to follow racial lines. Our current out-of-boundary system and boundaries stem directly from a court order. Once it became impossible to keep blacks out of white schools, the white schools adopted tracking, which was rigged to keep the black and white kids in separate classrooms. The case of Hobson vs. Hansen eliminated tracking in DC public schools. (In an interesting bit of DC trivia, the lead plaintiff was the son of Julius Hobson).

Without arguing the educational merits of tracking, it's important to know three things about it: 1. Its history in DC; 2. The legal environment that remains from Hobson vs. Hansen; and 3. the achievement gap by race that persists. The reality of DC is that if you were to have tracking, the tracks would fall very, very sharply along racial lines.

While I personally believe that tracking is the best thing for all students, we're unlikely to see it in DC>

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It helps a lot in understanding DCPS to know about its history.

Despite what you might have learned in history class, when Brown vs. Board of Education was handed down in 1956 the schools didn't suddenly become desegregated. Prior to Brown, "separate but equal" in DC was heavy on the separate and light on the equal -- there were two complete school systems, black and white, with two sets of facilities, two sets of teachers, two administrations and two superintendents -- two of everything. After Brown, the white system resisted integration with the black system with every bureaucratic trick it could muster. The next 25 years were a series of moves and counter-moves, where the administration would throw up a barrier, black parents and students would take the system to court and a court order would be issued prohibiting the barrier, then the administration would throw up a new barrier and the cycle would repeat.

One such barrier was implementation of strict boundary rules that made it impossible to attend a school out-of-boundary, and then boundaries drawn to follow racial lines. Our current out-of-boundary system and boundaries stem directly from a court order. Once it became impossible to keep blacks out of white schools, the white schools adopted tracking, which was rigged to keep the black and white kids in separate classrooms. The case of Hobson vs. Hansen eliminated tracking in DC public schools. (In an interesting bit of DC trivia, the lead plaintiff was the son of Julius Hobson).

Without arguing the educational merits of tracking, it's important to know three things about it: 1. Its history in DC; 2. The legal environment that remains from Hobson vs. Hansen; and 3. the achievement gap by race that persists. The reality of DC is that if you were to have tracking, the tracks would fall very, very sharply along racial lines.

While I personally believe that tracking is the best thing for all students, we're unlikely to see it in DC>

Thank you. I was unfamiliar with this history and it is helpful to understanding where we are today.

[Anonymous]

PP, Thanks for that, it does shed light on why there is such an aversion to it here. But tracking doesn't always have to fall along racial lines. The fact is, DC is already pretty segregated and there are a variety of skill levels in every school. Attending and graduating from predominantly AA schools in the midwest that tracked, I have experienced how tracking can benefit the population of students that need greater challenges than many of the other students. If an assessment (portfolio, standardized test, etc) could be given and used to determine where students are tracked based on skill level at each school it would be more objective perhaps. If parents knew that the option was there for kids at every school I think there would be less flight out of DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It helps a lot in understanding DCPS to know about its history.

Despite what you might have learned in history class, when Brown vs. Board of Education was handed down in 1956 the schools didn't suddenly become desegregated. Prior to Brown, "separate but equal" in DC was heavy on the separate and light on the equal -- there were two complete school systems, black and white, with two sets of facilities, two sets of teachers, two administrations and two superintendents -- two of everything. After Brown, the white system resisted integration with the black system with every bureaucratic trick it could muster. The next 25 years were a series of moves and counter-moves, where the administration would throw up a barrier, black parents and students would take the system to court and a court order would be issued prohibiting the barrier, then the administration would throw up a new barrier and the cycle would repeat.

One such barrier was implementation of strict boundary rules that made it impossible to attend a school out-of-boundary, and then boundaries drawn to follow racial lines. Our current out-of-boundary system and boundaries stem directly from a court order. Once it became impossible to keep blacks out of white schools, the white schools adopted tracking, which was rigged to keep the black and white kids in separate classrooms. The case of Hobson vs. Hansen eliminated tracking in DC public schools. (In an interesting bit of DC trivia, the lead plaintiff was the son of Julius Hobson).

Without arguing the educational merits of tracking, it's important to know three things about it: 1. Its history in DC; 2. The legal environment that remains from Hobson vs. Hansen; and 3. the achievement gap by race that persists. The reality of DC is that if you were to have tracking, the tracks would fall very, very sharply along racial lines.

While I personally believe that tracking is the best thing for all students, we're unlikely to see it in DC>

So, because of racism in the late 50s/early 60s, advanced students in DC today are screwed over because it would be politically incorrect to educate them at their level? Children whose parents weren't even alive for Brown v. Board of Education are supposed to be sacrificial lambs?

Would someone please remind me why middle/upper-middle class families exit the District after a certain public school threshold? They must be racist bastards!! Only a KKKlansman could possibly want the best possible education for their child, after all. RACISTS!!

[Anonymous]

22:22 here,

22:31, I understand your sentiment (though, it believe it is more of a socio-economic issue than a racial one), but I also understand why DC would be gunshy about considering tracking. OSSE could cultivate good faith by making it a priority to update facilities across the board in all four quadrants and budgeting in at least one teacher at each school to do pullouts with higher level students irrespective of grade level for different subjects throughout the day. A sad truth is that currently in DC not every neighborhood school is given equal consideration.

[Anonymous]

i believe at Brent kids get differentiated instruction in separate classroms. I doubt it falls into racial lines. I believe for math and reading, kids can change into different classrooms based on ability-- a grade-level class and an above-grade level class. So it is differentiated, but also using different classrooms and a different teacher. So does that count as tracking or differentiated or a mix? whatever it is, I think it works great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i believe at Brent kids get differentiated instruction in separate classroms. I doubt it falls into racial lines. I believe for math and reading, kids can change into different classrooms based on ability-- a grade-level class and an above-grade level class. So it is differentiated, but also using different classrooms and a different teacher. So does that count as tracking or differentiated or a mix? whatever it is, I think it works great.

I think that would be considered flexible tracking and it sounds great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i believe at Brent kids get differentiated instruction in separate classroms. I doubt it falls into racial lines. I believe for math and reading, kids can change into different classrooms based on ability-- a grade-level class and an above-grade level class. So it is differentiated, but also using different classrooms and a different teacher. So does that count as tracking or differentiated or a mix? whatever it is, I think it works great.

I agree. I'm really happy with the way its working this year. The third graders are in three math classes with different teachers based on ability and knowledge. The kids are re-tested every 7 weeks and kids move around. The lowest ability group is the smallest so those kids can have more support. All three groups are racially mixed which I don't think was intentional just how the assessments played out (although I heard a complaint about the top group being mainly boys).

So the good thing is that there is flexibility, and it's not like the kids will be in these tracks forever.

I heard there is going to be an intensive math camp at Brent for the first few weeks of summer. Will it be for anyone who wants it or for kids who are behind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It helps a lot in understanding DCPS to know about its history.

Despite what you might have learned in history class, when Brown vs. Board of Education was handed down in 1956 the schools didn't suddenly become desegregated. Prior to Brown, "separate but equal" in DC was heavy on the separate and light on the equal -- there were two complete school systems, black and white, with two sets of facilities, two sets of teachers, two administrations and two superintendents -- two of everything. After Brown, the white system resisted integration with the black system with every bureaucratic trick it could muster. The next 25 years were a series of moves and counter-moves, where the administration would throw up a barrier, black parents and students would take the system to court and a court order would be issued prohibiting the barrier, then the administration would throw up a new barrier and the cycle would repeat.
I
One such barrier was implementation of strict boundary rules that made it impossible to attend a school out-of-boundary, and then boundaries drawn to follow racial lines. Our current out-of-boundary system and boundaries stem directly from a court order. Once it became impossible to keep blacks out of white schools, the white schools adopted tracking, which was rigged to keep the black and white kids in separate classrooms. The case of Hobson vs. Hansen eliminated tracking in DC public schools. (In an interesting bit of DC trivia, the lead plaintiff was the son of Julius Hobson).

Without arguing the educational merits of tracking, it's important to know three things about it: 1. Its history in DC; 2. The legal environment that remains from Hobson vs. Hansen; and 3. the achievement gap by race that persists. The reality of DC is that if you were to have tracking, the tracks would fall very, very sharply along racial lines.

While I personally believe that tracking is the best thing for all students, we're unlikely to see it in DC>

While this history is true, important and relevant I believe it is also simplistic. Without a doubt there were all AA schools that used tracking as well and many AA students benefited. When tracking was eliminated due to.the court order, this is when educationally ambitious black families left the city in droves. This was a loss to the city and the school system. Continuing to see educational issues as first and foremost racial now is so detrimental and dies nothing to bolster student achievement. Let's understand the WHOLE history and then move forward

[Anonymous]

Differentiated instruction in the classroom is a popular buzzword and concept I'm education today. The idea is that the teacher can adapt instruction and activities to reach all the students in the class no matter what their level of performance or ability. This is especially important in inclusion classrooms with special ed students and students learning English.

It is an important and useful skill for teachers to reach all kids in their class and not leave anyone behind.

But, any teacher will tell you that it is very difficult and very time consuming and most will admit a) they don't do it as well as they would like and b) if the gap of prior knowledge/ability/achievement is very large it becomes nearly impossible c) when stretched, the teacher will focus on struggling students and even use the more advanced students to tutor others ( for better or worse ).

It is a complete crock that this method is a panacea or even minimally effective at teaching kids in the upper elementary/middle and high school years when content becomes key and those who.missed the foundational skills in the younger graded fall further behind. Do not buy any administrator telling you that this is how they are going to deal with cohorts of kids with big gaps in academic achievement above 3rd grade.

What Brent is doing with flexible tracking bases on individual skill sets and subjects is a reasonable way to begin to reinstate some form of tracking using what was learned from the failure and damage of the earlier incarnation of tracking which was much more rigid and open to prejudicial influences.

[Anonymous]

OP here,
My next question is whether all schools can decide to structure their classes this way? If that is an option it may do us well to have a discussion with school administration about how this can happen. Does the school need special permission from OSSE in order to do what Brent seems to have successfully done?

[Anonymous]

As a Brent parent of a child who would qualify for a GT center in the suburbs, I have to say what Brent is doing isn't really working all that well.

It's a valiant effort and admittedly far more than most schools this side of the park are doing, but there way too much "spread" in classes for teachers to effectively address the needs of all.

Of course the focus is on those students who struggle academically, but there are lots of students at Brent who are not being engaged properly. It's the same old question, how long do you last in the system before you check out for the suburbs, privates, or (lately) whatever the flavor-of-the-month charter school might be?

That said, I hope Brent figures it out. The specials are good and if they could dump the constant testing courtesy of DCPS, it could be a spectacular school.

[Anonymous]

^^ is your child in grade 3 or above? Or are you reporting your observations on the system?

[Anonymous]

I am not 13:49. However, I'm another Brent parent whose 3rd grader would qualify for a GT center in the suburbs. There has been a big step up with the flexible tracking this year. It is working very well for my child. My child always talks about how fun math is - this year especially. He never talks about school being boring - he wants to go to school every day. I really want to keep him at Brent through 5th.

[Anonymous]

If "differentiated instruction" really worked as well as its proponents espouse, then we'd all still be in little one-room school houses instead of separate grades. After all, the difference between a K student and a 4th graders is about level of instruction, but now that we've declared it to be "differentiated" then there's no reason for them not to share a classrooom.