Should Schools De-track?
A Debate about the Policy and Practice of Student Tracking
About This Event
Online registration for this event is closed. Walk-in registrations will be accepted.

If you cannot attend, we welcome you to watch the event live on this page.


Recent decades have been marked by heated debates about whether secondary schools should educate students of all achievement levels in Listen to Audio


Download Audio as MP3
the same classroom or set up different "tracks" for high, average, and low achievers. Those who favor "tracking" believe it allows schools to more effectively educate each student, while critics argue that it promotes inequities and actually impedes classroom learning. Join us for a lively discussion featuring four prominent thinkers on this issue. School principal and influential researcher Carol Burris and University of Colorado professor Kevin Welner will make the case against tracking, explaining how schools can de-track effectively. The Brookings Institution's Tom Loveless and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's Michael Petrilli will explore the pernicious effects of de-tracking--especially for high-achieving students.
Agenda
3:15 p.m.
Registration
3:30
Panelists:
CAROL BURRIS, South Side High School, New York
TOM LOVELESS, Brookings Institution
MICHAEL PETRILLI, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
KEVIN WELNER, University of Colorado at Boulder
Moderator:
FREDERICK M. HESS, AEI
5:00
Adjournment and Reception
Event Contact Information
Olivia Meeks
1150 Seventeenth St., NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-5822
Media Contact Information
Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-4870
Event Summary

WASHINGTON, MARCH 17, 2011--Experts clashed over whether tracking students by ability best serves a wide variety of needs in a vigorous debate Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute. Carol Burris shared her experience with de-tracking as principal of New York's South Side High School, where she narrowed the achievement gap for minority students by de-tracking classrooms. The University of Colorado's Kevin Welner echoed Burris's support for de-tracking, asserting that more should be demanded of teachers and schools, including "universal acceleration" for all students. From the other side of the debate, Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute pushed back, arguing that policies that force schools to de-track are detrimental to efforts to customize schooling to better fit student needs. "The last thing we should do right now," Petrilli stated, "is criminalize tracking." For schools considering de-tracking, advised Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution, an examination of the empirical research on such efforts--and the scant evidence for scalable success--is critical. The panel found some common ground, agreeing that de-tracking can succeed for some schools, but that there are significant challenges to success on a large scale.

--OLIVIA MEEKS

View event details

View complete summary.
Event Materials
Should Schools De-track?
Also Visit
AEIdeas Blog The American Magazine

What's new on AEI

image The Fed can't save the stock market again
image Obama's IRS and AP scandals cast big chill on free speech
image Organic industry's credibility eroded by misinformation about GE foods
image It's not universal coverage
AEI Participants

 

Frederick M.
Hess
  • An educator, political scientist and author, Frederick M. Hess studies K-12 and higher education issues. His books include "Cage-Busting Leadership," "The Same Thing Over and Over," "Education Unbound," "Common Sense School Reform," "Revolution at the Margins," and "Spinning Wheels." He is also the author of the popular Education Week blog, "Rick Hess Straight Up." Hess's work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, National Affairs, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on education philanthropy, school costs and productivity, the impact of education research, and No Child Left Behind.  Hess serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, and on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools. He also serves on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government, as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum, from Harvard University.


    Follow AEI Education Policy on Twitter

  • Email: rhess@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Max Eden
    Phone: 202-862-5933
    Email: max.eden@aei.org
AEI on Facebook