Reply to What are folks doing for MS EOTP?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC can't serve kids of all backgrounds and SES better by offering more differentiated instruction vs. academic tracking at the MS level because there isn't a high SES-low SES achievement gap in this particular city, there's an achievement chasm.

When you've got 6 or 8 kids reading at a 3rd or 4th grade level in a 6th grade ELA class of 25 or 30 students, along with another 6 or 8 kids reading at an 8th or 9th grade level, the class doesn't work well. This is true no matter how hard a skilled teacher might attempt to differentiate. The class tends to become disruptive, because instruction can't be pitched at a level that will engage most of the students.

In our family's experience, a public MS is much better off moving away from pretending that differentiation within the classroom is the answer in the face of a vast achievement gap it didn't create and can't close. What I've seen at SH in the last five years are the tangible benefits of ending the pretense that one school can erase the brutal effects of multi-generational poverty in the District.

As SH turns into a real neighborhood school 40 years after the Cluster was set up, most of the kids' academic needs are now being met. The school is stronger, happier, more orderly and more functional as a result. [/quote]

Do you know why this common sense solution will never fly across DC

The #1 issue is the achievement gap.  By doing tracking guess what happens the achievement gap widens.  If you were superintendent what would you do....[/quote]

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