Tracking Students Still Stirs Up Debate

No child wants to be labeled stupid.

But tracking students by ability does just that, critics say, an argument dismissed by those who see it as a viable strategy for raising test scores.

"The teachers called them the robins, the blue birds and the crows," said Maureen Miletta, an education professor at Hofstra University, remembering back when tracking was more common and teachersfelt the need to hide its negative connotations. "Later they let thestudents come up with their own names. It became the Yankees, the Dodgers and the Giants. But the kids always knew what group they were in."

The merits of tracking are being debated once again as parents in the Amityville school district struggle to understand the impact of a recent district plan to group first- through sixth-grade students by reading ability. Educators continue to express mixed feelings over the controversial teaching strategy, which they say could be used as a shortcut to meeting tougher graduation requirements. But many teachers still see it as a regressive policy that could stunt children's academic growth.

"Any child who is tracked in the lower classes loses self-esteem, loses motivation, and makes less progress," Miletta said. "It's an insidious process that I think creates more problems than it solves."

While considered highly unusual at the elementary level, tracking by ability is common in secondary schools, where accelerated courses are offered to college-bound students. They are typically grouped by subject matters, such as regular and honors level math, science, English and social studies classes. Amityville's plan stands out because it groups children based on reading ability, as well as teacher evaluations, throughout the course of the day in one class. Officials say they saw dramatic improvements after students in a small eight-week pilot program received the more intensive instruction, with at least two adults working in each classroom. Under the new program, children are encouraged to move out of their assigned classrooms after their performance improves.

The more common approach at the elementary level is for children within a single class to be placed into smaller groups for reading so instruction can be tailored to their needs. But even that is controversial. Supporters say it keeps smart kids from getting frustrated by a slow instructional pace. Opponents say slower kids learn more when they're mixed with brighter classmates.

Critics of the Amityville program say separating students by ability can destroy low-achieving children's self-esteem and give high-ranking students a false illusion of superiority. And, even worse, it can effectively return the school to racial segregation, especially in a district that is about 80 percent black and Hispanic. In Amityville, for example, the highest ranking class has 17 whites, five blacks and one Hispanic student, according to Amityville Teachers Association president William Caffrey.

"Tracking has nothing to do with education, it has everything to do with local politics," said Alan Singer, professor of education at Hofstra, adding that schools across the country turn to tracking to create schools within schools. Whether it's called magnet schools or mini-schools, the result is a segregated student body and the practice is especially common in districts with large minority populations.

"This is not being done to provide quality education for low achievers," Singer said. "This is being done to keep white middle-class families in the public schools. Otherwise they would move out of the district or go to private schools."

Amityville officials deny the charge of racism, contending that what they are doing is not traditional tracking but a means to offer students more attention and a chance to reach grade level and beyond. That's a reasonable argument, said Bruce Brodsky, board chairman of Eastern Suffolk BOCES.

"It doesn't matter what you call it," he said. "If they've had heterogeneous settings and they found it has not worked for whatever reason, it's up to them to come up with a plan that helps the kids. The most important thing is Amityville has an obligation, and that is bringing every child to the level where they can pass the appropriate Regents exam so they can graduate."

Although the trend in the last couple of decades has been away from rigid tracking, many local educators see it coming back into vogue.

"As school districts become more accountable for specific results,they may find it easier to put kids into more rigid groups in order to have higher results on Regents exams," said Marc Bernstein, superintendent of the Bellmore-Merrick district, which offers Regents and honors classes to middle and high school students based on subject.

"People are searching for ways to do better," he said. "Tracking is a very simplistic approach to raising test scores. In the short term it usually works. But we may find that we are losing sight of the larger picture."

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Copyright 1998, Newsday Inc.
AROUND THE ISLAND / EDUCATION / Tracking Students Still Stirs Up Debate., 09-22-1998, pp A23.