On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the

On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the Twenty-First-Century Struggle against Resegregation (Race, Education, and Democracy)

A public school principalâ€™s account of the courageous leaders who have dismantled the tracking systems in their schools in order to desegregate classrooms
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What would happen if a school eliminated the â€œtracksâ€ that rank students based on their perceived intellectual abilities? Would low-achieving students fall behind and become frustrated? Would their higher-achieving peers suffer from a â€œwatered-downâ€ curriculum? Or is tracking itself the problem? A growing body of research shows that tracking doesnâ€™t increase learning for the minority and low-income students who are overrepresented in low-track classrooms. This de facto segregation has led many civil rights advocates to argue that tracking is turning back the clock on equal education.
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As a principal at a New York high school, Carol Corbett Burris believed that the curriculum for the best students was the best curriculum for all. She helped lead a bold plan to eliminate tracking from her school, and the results couldnâ€™t have been further from the doom-and-gloom scenarios of tracking proponents. Instead, there was a dramatic improvement in the achievement of all students, across racial and socioeconomic divisions, and a near elimination of the achievement gap. Today, due to those efforts, International Baccalaureate English is the twelfth-grade curriculum for South Side students, and all students take the same challenging courses, together, to prepare them for college.
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In On the Same Track, Burris draws on her own experience, on the experiences of other schools, and on the latest research to make an impassioned case for detracking. Not only does the practice of tracking fail to benefit lower-tracked students, as Burris shows, but it also results in the resegregation of classrooms. Furthermore, she argues that many of todayâ€™s popular reforms emanate from the same â€œsort and selectâ€ mentality that reinforces social stratification based on race and class.
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On the Same Track is a rousing, controversial, and yet optimistic account of how we need to change our assumptions and policies if we are to live up to the promise of democratic public education. Only by holding all students to the same high standards can we ensure that all have the same opportunity to live up to their full potential.

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Brand Beacon Press
Manufacturer Beacon Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 0807036900_used
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 2015-03-17
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780807036907

Country	USA
Brand	Beacon Press
Manufacturer	Beacon Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	0807036900_used
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	2015-03-17
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780807036907

On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the Twenty-First-Century Struggle against Resegregation (Race, Education, and Democracy)

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