Will de-tracking high schools increase college attendance?
Capital Weekly, August 16, 2007
(excerpt) There is a definitive need for a comprehensive, high-quality program that features an ample dose of rigor for all students. But aspiring to a vocation or a trade is every bit as worthy as college. In fact, such a goal is far more appropriate for many students than one that seeks to plug everyone into a college prep program.
A college prep program is simply not the “be all” and “end all” of public school options. The idea that eliminating programming should be equated with de-tracking is to overstate the basis for eliminating homogeneous grouping. Proponents of de-tracking insist that a program that has tiers within the program should not be constructed. These proponents are not advocating the elimination of appropriate vocational programming for students.
Misguided solutions that seek to equate the two concepts as if they are one in the same will likely see the exact opposite transpire. As Miller notes, to do so will not create increased college enrollment rates but rather a reduced high school graduation rate that will simply give the state yet “another problem to solve.”
(excerpt) There is a definitive need for a comprehensive, high-quality program that features an ample dose of rigor for all students. But aspiring to a vocation or a trade is every bit as worthy as college. In fact, such a goal is far more appropriate for many students than one that seeks to plug everyone into a college prep program.
A college prep program is simply not the “be all” and “end all” of public school options. The idea that eliminating programming should be equated with de-tracking is to overstate the basis for eliminating homogeneous grouping. Proponents of de-tracking insist that a program that has tiers within the program should not be constructed. These proponents are not advocating the elimination of appropriate vocational programming for students.
Misguided solutions that seek to equate the two concepts as if they are one in the same will likely see the exact opposite transpire. As Miller notes, to do so will not create increased college enrollment rates but rather a reduced high school graduation rate that will simply give the state yet “another problem to solve.”
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