How to detrack

General advice

Be patient

Rockville School District in New York began detracking in 1989. In 2013, all 12th graders took IB English. The process took over 20 years (Burris, 2014). It took the teachers at one high school that had a stated commitment to detracking five years to move from four levels of chemistry to two levels (Watanabe et al., 2007). In 2006, Evanston Township High School had reduced the number of academic tracks to four (Burris, 2014). By 2017, the total number of tracks had decreased even further, but the work was ongoing (Bavis, 2017). The success stories of detracking in the research all highlighted schools that moved slowly through the process. The ideal is to balance slow, incremental work with a steady focus on the end goal (Oakes, Wells, & Yonezama, 1997)

Anticipate Resistance

In Stamford Connecticut, parents opposing detracking organized and took over the school board, stalling the reform. Powerful parents in Evanston Township in the early 2000s threatened to remove their children from the schools (Burris, 2014). One principal working on detracking said this; “[A group of parents] who have always been very aggressive about that they want things done a certain way and want their desires met . . . [they] threatened me and my job and my position…. [The parents said to me], ‘If this doesn’t happen our way, there are going to be consequences.'” (Theoharis, 2008, p.317).

As Jeannie Oakes wrote, “Among the key lessons we learned… is that districts and schools that initiate detracking reforms without preparing to overcome normative and political obstacles are likely to see their efforts for change substantially undermined” (Oakes, 2005, p.290). Therefore, she contends that detracking leaders both need to know the emperical literature and need to be ready to confront racial and cultural politics (Oakes, 2005).

Advice from Jeannie Oakes

In her 2005 book, Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality, Jeannie Oakes ends with eight pieces of concrete advice.

“First, reformers should affirm the democratic values that detracking efforts embody and openly acknowledge that this reform has both a moral as well as an empirical grounding.” (p.294)

“Second, emphasize the educational high ground on which detracking rests… a reform aimed at benefiting all students” (p.295)

“Third, aim for the ideal of completely detracked schools, and eschew the labeling and ranking of students on global categories related to their intelligence or merit. Although reformers will probably need to proceed incrementally..” ( p.295)

“Fourth, cultivate a climate of learning and inquiry among faculty and parents, acknowledging that it takes serious investigation of all of these issues for educators and parents to take risk with practices that society has taught us work to our children’s advantage. They must challenge explicitly the existing norms of intelligence, student ability, and what is valued as knowledge.” (p.295)

“Fifth, marry serious inquiry with real changes in teaching practices in heterogeneous classrooms and provide systematic evidence of the effectiveness of the changes they’ve made” (p.295-296)

“Sixth, look for “top-down” support. Top-down support can be found in the widespread federal and state policy focus on having all students meet rigorous standards.” (p.296)

“Seventh, look for “lateral” support from other schools and related school reform initiatives… Over the past two decades, educators have found powerful ideas and examples as well as helpful advice from their peers who are also confronting the technical, normative, and political challenges of detracking.” (p.297)

“Eighth, and perhaps most critical, cultivate “bottom-up” support.” (p.297). She describes bottom up support as support from local non-profits and from parents of students placed in the lower tracks writing this; “Because detracking shifts the most consequential reform decisions away from educators’ professional discretion and into the public arena, schools seeking to detrack should make sure that all voices– not just those of the most powerful parents and community members– are represented and heard as schools deliberate how to proceed… On a practical level, each school should review the composition of its parent groups to ensure that they reflect enrollment. If they do not, the school should monitor agenda-setting practices, meeting times, locations, communications, outreach, and other procedures to increase the groups’ accessibility to all members of the school community” (p.298).

Advice from Kevin Welner and Carol Burris

In their 2006 article, Alternative Approaches to the Politics of Detracking, Welner and Burris identified strategies that had worked in detracked disticts. We have reworded their findings as action statements.

Create stable and committed leadership.

“The reform greatly benefited from the support, encouragement, and leadership of a 20-year veteran superintendent who has deeply believed that all students are entitle to the best curriculum” (p.93)

Eliminate the lowest track first

“Their elimination results in an immediate improvement in school culture and higher achievement” (p.93)

Ease teachers into heterogeneous classes

Gradually increase the mixture of students in their classes (p.94)

Support struggling learners

“…the district adopted the high track curriculum and provided support for struggling learners” (p.94)

Push for steady, determined progress

“Although the process was gradual and paced, administrators did not wait until all teachers and parents agreed” (p.94)

Collect and disseminate achievement data

“….moves the discussion from opinion to fact” (p.94)

Carefully select and evaluate staff

“…teachers who do not buy into a detracking school’s philosophy will not internalize and practice the strategies needed to make heterogeneous grouping successful” (p.94)

Methodologically create truly heterogeneous classes

“Classes were carefully constructed so that equal numbers of high achievers were in each class” (p.94)

Respond earnestly to parental concerns about learning and achievement

“Parent concerns were never dismissed” (p.94)

Support, praise, and encourage school staff

“School leaders praised teacher efforts and celebrated student achievement with the staff” (p.94)

Cultivate political support

“A school district’s policies affect all of its students; true democratic deliberation requires responsiveness to all people, not just those with the loudest voices” (p.96)

The authors describe one school board meeting where the parents of high achieving parents had been protesting the reform; “As reported by a district official, the African American parents simply sat there and listened to what was being said by the other parents. Then, ‘one of the [African American] parents got up and said, ‘we just wanted the board to know that the things these parents…want for their children, we want for our children.’ And that was it. The rest of the people just… waived their time at hte podium’ (Welner, 2001a., p.108)” (p.97).

“When parents of low-track students are politically invisible, they are too easily ignored.” (p.97)

Challenge beliefs and values grounded in low expectations

“Teachers, parents, and students mistake labels such as gifted, average, and remedial for certification of overall ability or worth… For detracking to work, such beliefs should be openly discussed and challenged” (p.97).

Stages of detracking

John Murphy, the current principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center presented four stages for detracking an International Baccalaureate (IB) program:

Level 1: Gated– school has criteria for access to the IB program.
Level 2: Open gate– the school allows any student access to the IB program.
Level 3: Open gate with active recruitment.
Level 4: IB is the default program of studies. (J. Murphy, personal communication, April 9, 2018).

In a presentation on sense making in detracking, Shannon Holder offered these four stages for detracking a school:

1. Total student choice in course selection.
2. Bottom track eliminated.
3. One or two subjects are detracked.
4. All subjects are detracked. (S. Holder, personal communication, April 8, 2018)

Role Based Advice

For School Board Members

Welner and Burris included specific advice for school board members in their 2006 article, Alternative Approaches to the Politics of Detracking, based on advice written by Welner and Oakes (2000) in their book, Navigating the Politics of Detracking. Here is what they wrote:

“Among the strategies that should be considered by the school board are the following:

Commit to the principles underlying the reforms.
Set clear expectations for change, including detracking.
Develop a comprehensive reform plan and guard against losing sight of its goals.
Engage the community in participation and discussion designed to ensure that all constituents have an effective political voice.
Foster constructive public engagement by establishing ongoing community forums on excellence and equity in the schools.
Hold detracking reform to a rigorous but reasonable standard” (Welner & Burris, 2006, p.97)

For Central Administrators

Welner and Burris included specific advice for central administrators in their 2006 article, Alternative Approaches to the Politics of Detracking, based on advice written by Welner and Oakes (2000) in their book, Navigating the Politics of Detracking. Here is what they wrote:

“Among the strategies that should be considered by the central administration are the following:

Emphasize the educational high ground on which detracking rests: All children can learn, and all children should receive a high-quality education.
Ensure that each school has the support necessary for detracking reforms to succeed.
Move beyond technically minded professional development.
Provide incentives for teachers working successfully with heterogeneous classes.
Replace departing faculty with a reform minded, diverse group of teachers.
Work systematically with local media.
Augment the public relations office with an office of parent and community relations with responsibility for improving parent involvement from the district’s low-income and minority neighborhoods. (Welner & Burris, 2006, p.97)

For schools

Welner and Burris included specific advice for schools in their 2006 article, Alternative Approaches to the Politics of Detracking, based on advice written by Welner and Oakes (2000) in their book, Navigating the Politics of Detracking. Here is what they wrote:

“Among the strategies that should be considered by schools are the following:

Develop faculty study groups.
Create a diverse, multicultural parent–faculty task force to monitor school practices for academic excellence and equity.
Disseminate relevant information about the reform.
Ensure that parent advisory groups reflect all of the parents in each school” (Welner & Burris, 2006, p.98)

“Among the strategies that should be considered by secondary schools in particular are the following:

Create smaller, more personalized learning environments.
Phase out all low-level courses.
Make ninth-grade enrollment in college preparatory Algebra 1 a minimal benchmark for all students.
Provide additional academic support for students not prepared for rigorous academics.
Provide ample opportunities for academic enrichment.
Provide challenging academic support and college counseling” (Welner & Burris, 2006, p.98).

For Departments And Teachers

Kelly’s work on the prevalence of tracking shows that departments within schools vary in how tracked they are– and how the amount of tracking changes over time (Kelly, 2007, Kelly & Price, 2011). Teachers can exert influence on how many tracks their department offers. A teacher from Watanabe’s teacher working group on detracking was troubled by the amount of tracking in her chemistry department and lead a reform effort that decreased the department’s tracking (Watanabe et al., 2007).

For more specific advice for teachers, visit our Making It Work page

For Parents

Parents are often portrayed as the opponents to detracking reforms, yet parents can also be the strongest proponents of reforms. Begin by educating yourself about your school. What is the diversity of the student population? What is the diversity of the high track courses? How tracked is the school? Then look at parent groups such as the PTA. Who is represented there? Does the group look like the population of the school? If not, you as a parent can advocate for increasing recruitment of other parents and adjusting the structure of the meetings to be more friendly to under represented parents. That might mean offering child care, varying meeting times, or providing translation.

References