This article is about:
- lumping students together
- the effects of putting students in certain groups or out of them
- the privileges displayed by the groups of "smarter kids"
- the uncertainty over which side to take, the lumping side or the integrator side
- what to do instead of lumping kids together
- how to teach kids so that they get the full benefit of their education
Author's Arguement:
Oakes argues that choosing sides between lumping students and integrating students is a hard decision to make, because both sides have their pros and cons.
Evidence:
1. "On one side of the issue, many educators and parents asser that when schools group by ability, teachers are better able to target individual needs and students will learn more." (pg. 178) Basically, if the same skill levels are put together teachers can pinpoint problem areas more easily.
2. "On the other side, growing numbers of school professionals and parents oppose tracking because they believe it locks most students into classes where they are stereotyped as "less able," and where they have fewer opportunities." (pg. 178) The counter arguement where many parents believe their kids are being left out.
3. "...students who are placed in high-ability groups have access to far richer schooling experiances than other students." (pg. 178) The misconception that some kids are missing out...
Comments from the Peanut Gallery:
Ok.... soooooo coming from an honors class life... I can say EHHHHHHHH WRONG..... on a lot of these comments..... yeah.... lets begin with that...
I did not feel privileged, and I did not feel like I was being pushed to "prepare for college". I barely ever had homework, and the work wasn't stimulating. I felt smart there... but I got to college and felt stupid because I was not at all prepared for what was coming to me. And there is no way that I can argue that college kids were prepped for like... Ivy League and top colleges.. because our valedictorian was rejected from Brown University because they were "looking for more private school kids"... so how is that for privilege? Our valedictorian had straight A+'s from 6th grade to senior year.... they checked..... she was a freak.... and she got rejected...
Yeah you had your people who thought they were special.... there was one girl who was in the AP level classes, and she busted our balls all the time because we weren't applying to Ivy League colleges. She thought it was disgraceful that some of us applied to community colleges or state colleges just because they "had the better choices for our majors"... she didn't believe in that...
Being in honors classes didn't make you do well on your college prep exams either.... I did horrible on my SAT's both times that I took them.... some people just don't test well.... funny thing is i got close to top scores on my PPST's... weird......
I don't have much else to say on this one.... but this article irked me... cuz it brought me back to those senior year days when everyone is freaking about entrance exams..... i told the story about my friend who had the seizure cuz of it... yeah... thats what it does to people....
Also, when you finally do put kids together disregarding personal abilities, its traumatic.... my brothers high school did away with levels this year... the kids are all screwed up... as are the teachers.... my brother feels stupid because he isn't in his comfort zone anymore. It's really not fair to those kids who want to try, but are constantly overshadowed by the fact that there are kids vastly more abundant in knowledge then they are...... I find that depressing... You don't know the problems with this stuff til you finally do it.... then it's too late...
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