As I understood it, there was a distinction between ability grouping and tracking.
And tracking was supposed to be, this is what I learned in ed schools, you know, a system
in which kids placed, right, tiered and stratified, and they couldn't really move out.
They stayed in that place.
And ability grouping was supposed to sort of be, you have to skill deficiencies.
We need to help you.
We're going to put you in a setting to help you acquire those skills.
And the goal is to move you, you know, move you through the grouping.
So when I was told that there was ability grouping there, a 21-year-old coming fresh
out of an ed program, I said, oh, okay, well, so that means you're really committed to giving
kids the skills that they need.
I got my first class list.
I looked at the then supervisor at the time, and I said to him, I see that they have these
numbers next to the class list, and he explained, oh, yes, well, you know, this number means
level two, this number means level three, this number means level four.
And I said, okay, so that's the ability group.
Yes, yes, correct.
I said, okay, so where's the file with the skills, like, that the kids are missing, and
that I need to teach so that they can move up?
And he looked at me, and he didn't respond.
And that was in 1998, and it's 2011.
And I still don't know, as a social studies teacher, no one has ever shown me a policy
or a skills assessment that let me know what the difference was between the kids and all
these levels.
This district failed.
This district did not challenge you.
If you were to ask, say, a department chairman, they would say, well, here it is.
It's, you know, your grades and how well you do in the class, and, you know, are you getting
that A or B to maintain your status in that particular level?
And some faculty members would say, well, they're essentially the same, but we go a
little bit more slowly in the lower level.
It kind of felt the same to me.
The only thing that really changed was the people that were in the classes.
The material felt the same to me.
It didn't, I didn't really feel it different.
I mean, it's a little bit, the teachers take a little bit more time with the students
level three, but level four, it really didn't feel that much different.
That's the only thing I really could tell.
I think, well, it's definitely obvious, like you can walk down the hall in Columbia and
like look through a door and tell what level it is just by looking in because of race.
I think that we can't divorce the way that the system functions from our fantasies about
race, the stories that you'll hear people saying about the kids that hold the class
back and will slow everything down, right?
Like I'm, I just, I'm thinking about it.
I've taught a class that has no level assigned to it for almost all of the time that I've
been here, the sociology class.
I've never looked around and heard a kid say, gosh, we're just moving so slow.
You always have to stop and answer so-and-so's question.
I mean, that's just, it's, it's sort of not a reality.
But if, but if the levels were supposed to function so that those kids who were so far
behind got the help that they needed, why are they still far behind?
And are you telling me literally that such a large concentration of black children in
your community can't?
And are you telling me with all confidence that such a large concentration of white students
in the community just can?
Every step of the way we've expanded access to higher quality coursework or support for
struggling kids, we've faced opposition, whether it's including more students with special
needs in the regular classroom, leveling up more students into college preparatory classes,
getting jumpstart programs to directly connect with parents who may have had a negative experience
with students, with school themselves, ending the practice of assigning students to class
by rank ordering them first and then assigning them to class, asking the community to invest
in food they kindergarten, providing step-up classes so students could advance at levels,
even reallocating the way guidance counselors worked in the high school to make sure that
struggling students got more attention.
We've faced opposition every single step of the way and these have been really modest
moves.
I'm the first one to say that we have not done nearly enough yet, in fact we're just
getting started.
I think that it should be de-leveled to an extent because like I really think that level
three and level four should kind of just be one level because they're really, they're
really, when I switched, it really wasn't a big difference, the only difference was
really the people.
I think that it's less like where you are, so much as like what you're willing to do.
Like I think that most of the people that are in level four English, it's not because
they're like better at English, so much as that they either enjoy reading or are forced
to read by their parents or whatever, like they're willing to do the work that it takes.
There is a, everything's moving at a faster pace.
There are also the teachers just keep on dropping projects left and right, which I personally
like.
There are some kids who are starting to fall behind a little.
I have two children who challenge the system in a way that most children don't and as much
as we have services for children who are learning disabled and who need help in that regard
and to a degree, my son was a beneficiary of that in terms of his occupational, you
know, there were definitely deficiencies that he needed help with.
For kids who are gifted and talented, we got nothing.
We got bupkis for them.
I had come to Columbia after people had already raised questions about leveling.
There were some veteran teachers who taught at the school when it was a blue ribbon school
who were dissatisfied with what they saw in the structure and what it did to children
psychologically to be in an institution where you're told that there are people here who
are better than you or to even be the other students in the institution who are being
told they're people here who are lesser than you.
Everyone of our children's future is inextricably tied up to the future of every other child.
