Page 81 - EdViewptsSpring2021

Who and How? One District's

Journey of Student Access

By Nicole Ahern, Supervisor of School Counseling; Jeremy Cohen,
Supervisor of Mathematics; and Randi Hutchinson, Supervisor of ELA,

Township of Union School District

Placement in Advanced college while others were positioned come to mean grouping students by
Courses on a vocational track in preparation ability within subjects into Honors or
Advanced Placement (AP), college
for a trade (Hatwood & Gomez, 2008).
Tracking, or the practice of separating Though this extreme form of tracking preparatory (CP), or remedial courses
students into different classes is rare today, school districts are still (Wexler, 2019).
by their perceived capacities for implicitly defined by this paradigm. The College Board (n.d.) notes
learning, began in the early 20th Current research on tracking policies numerous benefits to enrolling
century in response to the influx of confirms the negative effects on in advanced courses. One such
immigrant children into America’s certain subgroups of students by benefit is increased levels of student
schools (Wexler, 2019). To educate denying them access to rigorous confidence and engagement.
this increasingly diverse student coursework (Cogan, et al. 2001). Further, AP-enrolled students have
population, school leaders used IQ Further studies have confirmed that the option to demonstrate mastery
scores - then thought to measure minority and low-income students of all on course-specific exams thereby
inherent academic capacities - to sort ability levels are over-represented in earning college-transferable credit
pupils into high-, middle-, or low level the lower tracks and underrepresented (College Board, n.d.). Despite these
tracks (Hatwood & Gomez, 2008). In in the higher tracks (Burris & Welner, benefits, practices that limit access to
the earliest days of tracking, certain 2005; Wyner, Bridgeland, & DiIulio, these courses persist. The following
high school students were groomed for 2007). Most recently, tracking has paper details one district’s journey to

Educational Viewpoints -79- Spring 2021