Reply to How to choose an elementary school. By "tracking" or intangibles?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Adam Gamoran, a superb sociologist, did some excellent work on ability grouping and tracking in the early 90's.  Yes, a long time ago.

Here's his punchline: This all isn't so black and white.  How children in different parts of the ability distribution fare under ability grouping and tracking depends on the characteristics of the actual programs in the actual school.  They are not all the same, and this matters for the effects.

I would be very hesitant to buy into a school district with a rigid system unless I was VERY SURE my kid was going to turn out to be bright enough for that top track placement and be one of those uber-responsibile kids who always do their homework without prompting, always color in the lines, and have very neat handwriting  (not likely in general, and less likely if a boy).[/quote]

I totally agree with this.  There are good and bad ways to do ability grouping.  One thing that I think is important for it to be successful and fair is to allow kids more than one chance to "move up" so to speak if their skills improve.  It shouldn't be that you get a label in 1st grade and then that's it.  As far as I know, the schools around here do use that approach as kids are tested yearly (and more frequently than that).[/quote]

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