Reply to Achievement gap continues to grow between high- and low-income schools

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Achievement gap continues to grow between high- and low-income schools"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The problem with focusing on the achievement gap is that it paradoxically increases it.  I went to a low performing MCPS school in the late 1980's when there was real tracking and I was in accelerated classes with other like minded/ motivated students.  If tracking existed like it did when I was in high school, I wouldn't be as concerned about my children attending the "best" school because I would know my children's needs could be met at most if not all MCPS schools.  Today however, I know that I need my kids to be in the most affluent school  possible so that there are resources to deal with acceleration.  Since there are few bottom kids at my kids' school, I know my kids' teachers can focus on teaching my kids rather than giving them worksheets [/quote]

No kid close to high school yet, but don't honors classes serve this purpose? Or are you looking for tracking beyond this?[/quote]

they blend the classes together. Honors Science is a small section in each Science class. They get extra work, extra test questions but still have to sit in the class with the dumb disruptive kids.  Sorry so harsh but in my child's middle school (JW) it does NOT work well.[/quote]

Ah ok.  While I may not agree with your phrasing, I understand it to an extent.  Didn't grow up around here, but most of my high school courses had tracking.  Those classes that didn't were not as productive because they were often a mix of unmotivated, disruptive kids (I would not use dumb because some of them were actually quite smart). I was a shy, nerdy kid who went through teasing (which i now recognize as bullying) during the awkward middle achool years and definitely felt more comfortable in classes with high-achievers. At the same time, it's tough because research has shown that putting all the low-achievers together isn't beneficial (there was a story on NPR recently but can't find the link).[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics