Argument: When safeguards are in place to prevent discrimination of minority students, tracking practices are beneficial to both students and teachers.

Students in the same grade level demonstrate a wide range of academic achievement levels.

Different achievement levels indicate the need for a curriculum and school policy that addresses the educational needs of individual students.  Students should receive an education appropriate to their ability level.

Tracking allows teachers to utilize a more individualized and ability-specific pedagogy.

Instead of “teaching to the middle,” teachers can personalize their pedagogy to match the learning styles and ability levels of the track.  Even though a track still represents a diverse range of skills, teaching will be more efficient and connect with more students. Teachers cannot teach every student individually, but separating them into homogeneous ability groups will facilitate teaching and more adequately address the individual needs of students.

“Ability grouping is one way of bringing students and curriculum together to produce learning.  Making judgments about what students can and can’t do and the curriculum from which they will and will not benefit carries real consequences for students” (Loveless, 1998).

High ability students are not adequately challenged by the regular curriculum.

Gifted children may stagnate if stuck in a class in which their abilities are not fully challenged.  Furthermore, college-bound students require a curriculum that prepares them for the rigors of college, including more emphasis on critical thinking and communication skills.  Similarly, students entering industrial or technological fields require supplemental education in those areas.

Lower level students may be lost in a general or more demanding classroom.

Students without the adequate skills to succeed in general classes cannot be ignored by the school system; they must receive an education appropriate to their current ability levels, so that they can hone their skills.  Lower level students are often intimidated by their upper level peers if they are placed in one classroom; their input is silenced.  Separating students by ability level grants these students a stronger voice in the classroom.

“All of the people who would have been in the lower level, like, they might get lost, they might not be able to keep up [in a general classroom]” (Rubin, 2003).  Quote by Christie, a high school student.

Proper implementation of a tracking policy is not discriminatory.

Intelligence testing and standardized tests, which may be culturally biased in the favor of the dominant group, are no longer used widely in placing children in tracks.  Current academic achievement, informal assessments and student input are more reliable in measuring the true ability levels of students. This individualized placement process is less likely to lead to the institutional marginalization of minority students.

“If low tracks remedied educational problems, the charge of segregation would probably dissipate” (Loveless, 1998).