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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm under the impression that tracking is when students are pulled out and separated by ability group. Differentiated instruction is when all students are in the same class at the same time and the teacher provides more challenging work to one group of students and extra remedial help to another group once the regular lesson is done. Is this accurate?

In practice, I've found at my DC's school, the teacher is so concerned about trying to pull up the low-achieving students, there isn't a whole lot of differentiated instruction for the smart, hard-working kids. I'm frustrated. I wish my DC was tracked and physically pulled out of the classroom allng with other high-achieving peers and offered richer lessons. Instead, DC brings in books to read from home after regular work is finished and gets through hundreds of pages a week. [/quote]

Back in the day, (forever ago when I was in elementary school) that is exactly what was done with G & T students.  From 2nd grade on, they pulled us out for specialized enrichment.  At 4th grade, they sent us to G & T classrooms at a magnet school.  I had to ride a bus to a school farther away from our house, but my younger sib got a car ride to the neighborhood school.  I recall being jealous over the ride thing, but otherwise very happy in my G & T class.  I  never had to worry about bullies or kids who didn't care about learning.  Forever after, (Jr. High and High school) I didn't like being in regular classrooms.  The overall tone was so much lower than in the G & T/Honors/A. P. classes.  When you're a shy, smart kid, the higher-level instruction of an elevated classroom is a whole new world - and that's not even counting the social security of being surrounded by a group of high-achieving peers instead of the typical classroom with at least a couple of hooligans and class clowns.

I hate the demise of specialized G & T education; it's exactly what a lot of high-performers need, but apparently it's now politically correct to sacrifice such students for the benefit of the masses.  [/quote]

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