Reply to WSJ - To Increase Equity, School Districts Eliminate Honors Classes

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Reply to "WSJ - To Increase Equity, School Districts Eliminate Honors Classes"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why is the solution alllllllllways to kowtow to the lowest common denominator.

This should be great for America's progress and innovation - knee cap the brightest because half the class are children of illegal migrants who need all sorts of remedial work since they can't even speak English.

People just cannot handle the fact there is also a natural bell curve of intelligence. Stop holding back our best.[/quote]

Well, then you'll be pleased to know this is not what they're doing. Instead, they're raising up lower-performing students by requiring all students to perform at a high level.[/quote]

No they are not. It is impossible to teach a higher level class if 50% of the class cannot even get close to meeting state math/ELA standards. Ridiculous assertion. I am all for high expectations for everyone, but tracking is necessary to accomplish it. [/quote]

Evidence?[/quote]

First, common sense.  How can it possibly be that a teacher could teach kids at extremely different ends of the spectrum?  Take a simple example - an English writing assignment.  Some kids could analyze a text and write a 5-page essay.  Kids who are failing the state exams couldn't.  So the only option is to "differentiate" by having harder and easier assignments in the same class -- which is basically tracking by any other name except less effective.

Second, evidence.  There is meaningful research showing that detracking can hurt those it purports to help.  "The most surprising finding of the analysis was that students from disadvantaged backgrounds appeared to benefit from tracking. Figlio and Page concluded, “We can find no evidence that detracking America’s schools, as is currently in vogue, will improve outcomes among disadvantaged students. This trend may instead harm the very students that detracking is intended to help” (p. 29)." https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/10/04/does-detracking-promote-educational-equity/

[/quote]

Sure, I get you are invested in believing the worst, but common sense says I should take MCPS at face value.[/quote]

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