Reply to Thoughts on Dunbar?

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Reply to "Thoughts on Dunbar?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]
Anonymous wrote:

Your premise is incorrect. The abysmal achievement that we have at Dunbar where 2% of the kids are on grade level in math is because there is NO tracking from an early age in elementary school. Dunbar is the typical result of not tracking, just like other poorly performing high schools in the city with similar stats.

Of course more than 2% of the thousands of kids in these poorly performing schools could have reached grade level competency. Why didn’t they? Because there is no tracking in elementary with G & T, no tracking of dedicated subjects in middle and high school. So teaching is to the lowest common denominator in these schools which is way below grade level. Then, even if kids don’t grasp concepts, everyone is socially promoted. End results are schools like Dunbar.

Look at cities where you have tracking starting in elementary, magnet or test in middle and high schools. They get low SES kids in these school who do well.

What DCPS does due to the failure of tracking then is defensive recovery in high school with Banneker. These kids come in with huge deficits which Banneker has to try to make up. That’s why all Banneker pushes is academics at the cost of all else. Even with 4 years of this, the best most of these kids can achieve is 3 on AP and low 20’s average on IB exams. These scores are not that great for a test in, heavy emphasis academic high school. But for kids who are so far behind, they do make strides.

Compare that to areas that start tracking early in elementary and beyond These low SES kids have been given higher level academics and challenged since elementary and blow the Banneker kids away. It’s not that both groups don’t have the same potential. It’s just these places tapped it early in the kids from elementary onward to the start of high school. These kids got way ahead and are performing at a much higher academic threshold.

It’s astounding to me that there’s a full grown adult who believes that Dunbar’s results are the result of not having tracking in elementary school. This person seems unaware of the mountains of research about links between academic achievement and poverty, trauma, violence, etc.

How do people this clueless make it through the day safely?
[/quote]

You are missing their point.  You can fully appreciate all the research about academic achievement and trauma and still believe that dedicated differentiation in early years would produce a high school with more than 2% of students on grade level.  It might not be 100% on grade level, it might not even be 50% given all the effects of poverty and trauma, but it would almost certainly be above TWO.  Failure to identify and provide differentiated opportunities hurts low income kids THE MOST because families with greater economic choice will bail.[/quote]

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