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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]So PP, would you agree that the word "tracking" is different and accepted (because of advanced/different curriculum) for advanced student, but we replace "differentiation" as a substitute for the word tracking for struggling kids because of emotional freight?[/b]

Some of the semantics bother me--it is common sense that all students have their progress "tracked" by their teachers.  Parents get report cards, and spelling tests, and notes home that tell us about our children.  I believe that "tracking" informally occurs regardless of whether it is in the same class, outside the class, pull out groups, etc.

Since I kind of take tracking as a given (formal and informal), my question is why we are ok with pull out groups and separate reading tables, but not separate class rooms and separate programs? Kids know the difference regardless of who the "smart kids" are.

My personal belief is that given our country's racial history, we equate separateness with segregation which is terrible and awful which no good person would want. Also because I personally want all children to keep that magic of childhood alive where dreams are possible no matter what and where you are academically and socially. So "adult messaging" is very important to me.

Most parents with means and buy into their version of the "advanced tracking" by going to private school which is especially important for minority parents because of teachers that may place minority children into the wrong track automatically as a reflex to skin color.

BUT I think unfortunately our discomfort as a society with both formal and informal  "tracking" has led to all sorts of unfortunate side effects:

lack of vocational schooling;
college for all! model of education
wrong messaging to kids in both the "high" track and "low" track (You are smart and special!--hate this for kids on the advanced track)

I don't know what the answers are, but I have very mixed feelings on this topic.

[/quote]

11:57 here:  Yes, I think that is the case.  If my child were struggling I believe I would want his/her teacher to "differentiate" their instruction, but I would be uncomfortable if my child were pulled out of the classroom and placed in a separate class.  This is a difficult issue as you stated in your post.  My child is 2E, and we are actively dealing with similar issues.  My son needs IEP services and accommodations for social/behavioral issues and he is ahead of the majority of his class.  I am glad that his charter practices inclusiveness and he is not pulled out and receives services in the classroom.  However, it is still obvious that he is getting additional attention.  The handful of kids in his class that are advanced also receive differentiated instruction and it is obvious that they (including my son) are different in terms of their school work and what is expected of them in the classroom.  The other kids start to figure this out.

For example, I remember being in 1st grade and thinking negatively of the kids that were in what I now understand as the low-reading group.  I remember picking up their books and noticing that it was all pictures, no words and they couldn't keep up with the teacher in general.  Those kids (at least in my private school) never lost the label of being stupid for my entire time at the school (8th grade!).  Would I have noticed if they were not grouped together in the classroom during reading or math or in a separate classroom from the beginning?  These are difficult questions.  No one gets upset when the smart kids are placed in an entire different classroom for GT.  In NYC, where we are from, we have friends with children that are going straight to GT programs in PK4, they will never be wilth the average to below-average kids in school.  That is tracking, nothing else to call it.  [/quote]

Oops. I should have said "GT programs for K", not PK4.  They were in private nursery schools for PK4.[/quote]

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