Tracking and Labeling Students

This week, the concept of tracking and labeling students was addressed and really stood out to me. When I see that a child has been placed in the lower track I cannot help but feel sorry for them since they will most likely never get out of that track, according to statistics. On the other hand, should we be teaching to the lowest academic level in our class? After discussing this predicament many times in my education classes, many teachers and students believe that combining different levels of student achievement promotes better learning and more socialization within the classroom. I agree that this will keep people on the same level but it seems like we are making the advanced students do the teaching for us. I know that students learn more when they try and teach it to someone else or they better wrap themselves around the concept but it still feels like the question of tracking or not tracking is hard to answer.

What is a huge problem is the fact that our tracking system has become a majority of minority students while the upper track is filled with white students. This cannot be denied or ignored any longer. Teachers need to stop giving up on students that are difficult to teach. Every student deserves an equal education to the person sitting next to them. What teachers need to do, which is obviously a difficult task, is to keep their students on a level playing field in the classroom and not to exclude any student for not being as advanced as others. I do not know exactly how to do this and create a perfect environment but I do think that is why we go to school to become teachers, to learn these kinds of techniques that are desperately needed in classrooms today, especially urban classrooms.