Phone Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
1-800-933-ASCD (2723)
Address 1703 North Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311-1714
Complete Customer Service Details
by Carol Corbett Burris and Delia T. Garrity
Table of Contents
This ASCD Study Guide is meant to enhance your understanding of Detracking for Excellence and Equity, an ASCD book written by Carol Corbett Burris and Delia T. Garrity, published in August 2008.
The questions and activities that follow are designed to help you make connections between the text and your personal and professional situations and experiences. They are not meant to cover all aspects of the book but rather to address specific ideas that might warrant further reflection. Most of the questions are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read or are reading Detracking for Excellence and Equity.
This chapter presents a historical overview of the detracking of the Rockville Centre schools. Create a flowchart or graphic organizer that maps the tracking system in Rockville Centre's middle and high schools in the 1980s and another flowchart or graphic organizer that depicts the Rockville Centre system today. Next, create two visual depictions of your own school system—one from the 80s and one that maps the current system.
The authors describe common tracking systems (e.g. ability grouping, leveling systems, and streaming) and, on page 17, concur with Oakes (2005) that "whatever the title or the structure, if some students are grouped together and required to take a course apart from other students, it is a form of tracking."
The authors argue that the careful revision and implementation of curriculum is key to the success of detracking reform.
This chapter covers the complicated process of obtaining staff and parent buy-in for detracking reform.
In The New Meaning of Educational Change (1991), Michael Fullan, a prominent researcher on school reform, reports that it takes a minimum of three to five years to successfully implement innovations and more than five years to achieve meaningful school reform.
The authors emphasize that active learning is critical in detracked classrooms. On page 103, they list questions that can help teachers develop differentiated lessons that incorporate active student participation.
The authors state that it is important to ascertain during employment interviews whether candidates for teacher or administrator positions hold beliefs that would enable them to be successful in a detracked school.
In Chapter 2, the authors discuss the belief systems regarding intelligence and ability that sustain tracking. In this final chapter of the book, they return to beliefs, outlining those associated with a detracking reform.
Fullan, M. (1991) The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gardner, H. (2008, March 24). Multiple intelligences theory after 25 years: Promises, possibilities, and pitfalls. Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York.
Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Weiss, I., & Pasley, J. (2006). Scaling up instructional improvement through teacher professional development: Insights from the local systemic change initiative. CPRE Policy Briefs. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania.
Welner, K. G. (2001). Legal rights, local wrongs: When community control collides with educational equity. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Detracking for Excellence and Equity was written by Carol Corbett Burris and Delia T. Garrity. This 176-page, 6" x 9" book (Stock #108013; ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-0708-3) is available from ASCD for $20.95 (ASCD member) or $26.95 (nonmember). Copyright © 2008 by ASCD. To order a copy, call ASCD at 1-800-933-2723 (in Virginia 1-703-578-9600) and press 2 for the Service Center. Or buy the book from ASCD's Online Store.
Subscribe to ASCD Express, our free email newsletter, to have practical, actionable strategies and information delivered to your email inbox twice a month.
ASCD respects intellectual property rights and adheres to the laws governing them. Learn more about our permissions policy and submit your request online.