The Importance Of Student Tracking In Middle School

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I teach in a middle school that carries currently carries grades 5 through 8. We track our students for some subjects such as reading, language, and math, but don’t track them for any other core classes. However, these students generally end up being in the same classes throughout the day anyway due to them being tracked for reading, math, and language. In talking with my building Principal on the subject of tracking, he mentioned that next year our students will be tracked even more in their core classes as a result of us trying to improve test scores and due to smaller class sizes (we will more than likely be going down to a 6th-8th grade middle school). He mentioned that we are going to put a bigger emphasis on tracking our students and be more “strict” with how we group them. Therefore, I think it will be interesting to see how these changes will play out next year. Hopefully they will work for the better and we will see success with all students regardless of level. Student tracking “involves placing students in different classes on the basis of ability (Hornby & White, 2014, p. 90)”. According to Hornby and White (2014) “in the United States tracking in various forms has been one of the predominant organizing practices in public schools for the past …show more content…
The same goes for students who may be struggling, if they are placed in a higher track and struggle then we need to find a way to help them out as well. As educators we never want a student so frustrated, and not necessarily because they don’t get a certain concept, that they give up. It’s our job to recognize when a student is frustrated and figure out a way to help them so they can be successful. It’s also important to remember that this frustration can come from all levels of