A collegue of mine here at work recently talked to me about the cambridge schooling system, and of the interesting “going on’s” of the High School. I just read an article in the globe. For those who don’t know, Cambridge has/had one of the best public high schools around (especially for what is deemed an inner city school). Mainly, this seems to come from Cambridge being a very rich city, where the average spent for each child is $17,000 a year. The high school was split up into “houses”, with each house having a certain focus, that children would apply for when first entering high school. There was movement allowed between houses, kids could take classes from any house, however as expected these houses really seperated people based on class, education, race, and income.
To modify this, and try to close the gap between the “ivy leauge white kids” and the kids who don’t even make it through to graduation, 3 years ago they tore down this selective housing structure and structured heterogeneous classes/houses bassed on race, income, etc.
The result seems to be pretty chaotic, and there is a lot of debate over whether this is a model for what to do, or what not to do. Personally I am not sure where I stand. I think there are vaild points in the article, such as
The teachers argue that math must be tracked, because they can’t teach an advanced concept until students have mastered the basic concept that underlies it.
However I do think that if you are surrounded by people of under achivers, or are sort of in the track to “not succeed,” being surrounded by people who believe that college or even graduation is within reaches, is a good thing. I will be curious to see what comes of this.
ps. yes sujal, another thinly veiled ploy to win favor of Heidi 
June 11th, 2003 at 1:29 pm
What can I say…I feel pressure…yet…I’m sucked in…though reading this kind of article always makes me cringe. It is the same feeling I get when I am on an airplane and the person next to me asks me what I do for a living. I am always tempted to lie, because people think that just because they WENT to high school, they are authorities on it. That is not to say that people cannot have their opinions, but they just tend to be poorly informed opinions.
With that said, the beginning of the article seems so oversimplified to me, and leaves me asking the question – What the hell are they talking about? I’ve only taught in heterogeneously grouped schools. In fact, in MA Ed. Reform, schools HAVE to group heterogeneously, though they don’t always do it to a T.
One of the greatest difficulties in dealing with a heterogeneously mixed group is teaching to the various levels when one has a sizable class. If classes hovered around 15, it is MUCH more do-able. Then again, in lower tracked classes, small class size is key, as well. Hell, for upper classes to really learn a lot, they need individual attention. So my main argument is that classes need to be smaller in order for students to succeed.
Now, I am not a fan of tracking, though I will be the first to admit that it is a very complex arena. Simply saying, let’s mix ‘em all up doesn’t exactly work either. But mixing students up and providing real support to teachers DOES work. And having heterogeneous groups until a certain level works. But it requires community support. It is so important that children are read to before they even begin school. And man, does the upper class ever bark loudly if the wealth is shared! It’s really quite disgusting. Of course we all want our kids to succeed. And it is also a fact that there are more than a handful of parents who believe their child is a genius when he or she is not – or believe their white child is certainly smarter than that black of hispanic child, because heaven knows that the world would be thrown off balance should a black or hispanic child be more intelligent than their own. We fail acknowledge that race has nothing to do with intelligence – that it is all massive cultural conditioning.
Basically, the iniquities run so much more deeply than just in schooling. School is just a really useful place to keep our caste system in place.
Alas, treating each student as a human being works. Small schools work. Small classes work. And realizing that students are human beings, able to make choices – choices to succeed or fail – we need to guide them, but we cannot control them. Reading this article makes me thing of a story by Ursula LeGuin called “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” I highly recommend it. It deals with the same issues as this article does.
It never ceases to amaze me how we teach our kids to share at a young age, yet we as adults so rarely model that kind of behavior. And I guess, selfishness is a big part of humanity. I waffle between being optimistic and cynical about this issue…. I keep fighting for equity, yet I keep trying to work with what I am given.
The article seems to also show many of the aspects that work – and yes, time, experience, etc. makes a difference. Sizer knows what he’s talking about. It’s really tough to deal with changing administration and school committees with personal agendas. What works for the good of the many is a neutral party in power. Anyway – my diatribe is done. I need to grade…
June 11th, 2003 at 3:10 pm
Have you tried the stair method?
just throw them down and see where they land. This also makes me think of my pool playing, where I think that because I “set up the problem” correctly I shoudl get a partial credit, or at least get another shot, if the excecution itself did not go perfectly.
That is an interesting point about classes already being heterogeneous. Now that you point it out, I know for fact that I definately was part of them, and then was pulled out for “honors” classes in things like English and math. So, now I am not sure why this is so different then before. Maybe because you cannot choose your House anymore and this gave the illusion of being in the A group? Maybe because before you could take the advanced classes in diff houses, and now maybe you are stuck in this assigned house? Anyhow, I am also a strong believer in fixing our earlier education. I see 8 years olds who are still barely reading, and dont seem to know how to subtract. How are they expected to complete? I know there are a lot of issues involved (parents etc.) but maybe we need to also focus on better early edu (have levels required to “graduate” from elementary school? I guess if I had the anwer I would run for some office.
June 11th, 2003 at 3:22 pm
Smart woman you are, Karen — who does have the answers…
this is such a tough call and situation, and quick fixes don’t work — dedication to truly trying to be equitable is so important, yet, so many just want “results” for re-election… don’t know if you watch the trashy show “Boston Public” but their 2nd to last episode this past season dealt with budget issues — it was exaggerated, yes, but somewhat of a good representation of the politics meeting the educational needs…
h
June 12th, 2003 at 1:45 pm
Oh god… learning from Boston public.
Yeesh.