ED353349 UD029010

 

Title: Crossing the Tracks: How "Untracking" Can Save America's Schools.
Author(s): Wheelock, Anne
Author Affiliation: Massachusetts Advocacy Center, Boston.(BBB13557)
Pages: 325
Publication Date: 1992
Notes: Foreword by Jeannie Oakes.
Sponsoring Agency: Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, New York, NY. (BBB11688)
ISBN: 1-56584-013-5
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC13 Plus Postage.
Availability: New Press, 450 West 41st Street, New York, NY 10036.
Language: English
Document Type: Book (010); Information Analysis (070); Reports--Evaluative (142)
Geographic Source: U.S.; New York
Journal Announcement: RIEMAY1993

This book examines the effects of tracking on public education, makes a case for "untracking" as a key education reform, and describes successful untracking efforts. Tracking is an educational practice that groups children of similar abilities and achievement levels together into homogeneous groups. "Untracking" is the process of eliminating a track system in schools and reworking the education process to serve heterogeneous groups. Untracking schools create academic communities founded on a moral vision of all students learning together at high levels with the understanding that they are engaged in the first stages of a process of life-long learning. Part 1, an introduction, looks at the current status of tracking in public schools, problems with tracking, and reasons for detracking. Part 2 summarizes components of successful untracking in schools and districts. In Part 3, 7 chapters explore these components through the experiences of specific schools and cover the following topics: (1) involving parents and the community in the untracking effort; (2) establishing a culture of high expectations within an untracked school; (3) organizing and grouping students for diversity including grouping practices, compensatory education, language-diverse students, and multi-age grouping; (4) fashioning high-level curricula for heterogeneous groups; (5) untracking instruction and assessment in heterogeneous classrooms; (6) teaching mathematics; and (7) the affect of untracking on student aspirations. Included are a list of untracked schools and extensive references for each chapter or section. (JB)

Descriptors: Academic Aspiration; *Curriculum Development; *Educational Change; Educational Improvement; Elementary Secondary Education; Group Instruction; *Heterogeneous Grouping; Homogeneous Grouping; Individual Differences; Mathematics Education; *Nontraditional Education; Parent Participation; Public Schools; Teacher Expectations of Students; *Track System (Education)
Identifiers: *Diversity (Student); *Reform Efforts