Tracking

Equity & Diversity Opinion Social Darwinism Resurrected for the New Gilded Age
The fittest will survive and perhaps have a chance at that ever-shrinking middle class. The rest will flounder, but we have the "ethos of the meritocracy" to rescue us from any pangs of moral conscience.
Anthony Cody, October 10, 2013
2 min read
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion Exit Exams Boost the School to Prison Pipeline
A new study sheds startling light on a strong connection between high school exit exams and rates of incarceration.
Anthony Cody, July 6, 2013
3 min read
Teaching Opinion Michelle Newsum: Tracking Our Way to Wider Achievement Gaps
Under the fear created by NCLB/RTTT, large scale ability group tracking has made its way back into schools. Because tracking is commonly considered odious, and the research does not support it, no one calls it that. It is now given cuter or more palatable names like 'Walk to Read' or 'Intervention Time' even 'Flexible Grouping.' (Although some schools have flexible grouping and intervention time that takes place in classrooms and is quite lovely.)
Anthony Cody, May 29, 2013
9 min read
Teaching Opinion What Do You Think Of Using Ability Groups & "Tracking"?
This week's "question of the week" is:
"What does research say about use of ability groups/tracking, and how have you seen it used or misused? What are workable alternatives?"
Larry Ferlazzo, May 8, 2013
1 min read
Teaching Opinion Could This Be Everything You Wanted to Know About Tracking But Were Afraid to Ask?
Should we be tracking (ability grouping) students? This posts provides research to help you decided.
Stu Silberman, November 27, 2012
4 min read
Education Opinion New Research on Tracking and Value-Added
My fellow Ed Week blogger Stephen Sawchuck highlights some interesting new research suggesting that student tracking in middle and high schools may create biases in value-added measures that make them weaker predictors teacher effectiveness in high school than in the elementary grades. I highlighted Kirabo Jackson, who conducted one of the studies, here last year.
Sara Mead, October 26, 2012
1 min read
Classroom Technology Opinion Grouping, Tracking, & Personalizing
An international educator told me his school community was discussing the "ethics and educational validity of streaming -- deliberately dividing students up into class/work groups based on ability, i.e., a strong and weak group." He asked for my thoughts.
Tom Vander Ark, September 13, 2012
2 min read
Education Opinion Abandoning Age-Tracking
Tamara Fisher explores multi-age readiness-grouping, an alternative educational strategy to the age-tracking commonly used in most American schools.
Tamara Fisher, July 21, 2010
5 min read
Education Opinion Beyond Tracking: Multiple Pathways
Education reformers sometimes take on stances that carry good ideas to absurd lengths. One of those that has concerned me recently is the idea that the only acceptable outcome for a K-12 student is completion of a four-year college degree. This is what the jobs of the future will demand, we are told. But when I look at the shambles our economy is in, I begin to wonder who is better off, a college graduate with a degree in English and $50,000 worth of debt, or someone who has managed to get a strong set of skills as a carpenter, an electrician, or any number of technical positions that require training but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree.
Anthony Cody, July 13, 2009
1 min read
Student Achievement Study Offers Ways to Better European Education
School systems that track students into certain classes and academic programs based on ability end up worsening disparities between high and low performers, according to a far-ranging report that offers recommendations for improving education across Europe.
Sean Cavanagh, January 17, 2006
5 min read
Education Report Roundup Academic Tracking
An international study suggests that rigid tracking of students into different classes by their academic ability provides little or no payoff for improving a nation’s overall academic achievement.
Debra Viadero, March 8, 2005
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor High Schools’ Redesign: More Tests and Tracking?
Beware of politicians promoting more testing and tracking of students.
February 1, 2005
2 min read
Student Achievement Explainer Tracking
Tracking is a commonly used term for ability grouping, the practice of lumping children together according to their talents in classrooms.
Education Week Staff, September 21, 2004
3 min read
Student Achievement Opinion When Excellence And Equity Thrive
To close the achievement gap, writes Carol Corbett Burris, schools should stop dividing students into separate curriculum tracks.
Carol Corbett Burris, January 28, 2004
6 min read