Between the video and the two readings there is one central idea: grouping students by their "ability" can be detrimental to their future instead of beneficial.
In the video many students are interviewed and questioned about the idea of advanced placement, honors, and regular classes in their school. The school had tried a new system in which the students were allowed to go against the better wishes of their teachers' recommendations as to what class they should be placed into.
As a direct result, these students chose where they wanted to be, and in turn had their own successes and failures. For the most part, the students did very well. Towards the end of the video, one of the teachers mentioned the fact that a parent had complimented a student by saying that they were very bright. Little did this parent know that that student had previously been labeled as special needs. The video is a great representation of the idea that there is more than what meets the eye.
The two articles supported the same theme. While I do agree that "tracking" or grouped placements for students can often be biased, I will add my personal account on the matter.
When I was in high school, I struggled in 9th grade English. I opted to take an honors English the following year, and I did well. This was partly due to the teacher, as she was known to be a little less harsh than others. However, after that year (10th grade English), my teacher did not recommend that I take another honors class.
When I got into my 11th grade college prep English, which was the standard class, not honors, I was immediately bombarded with work. To this day it was the hardest English/literature class that I have ever taken. My point behind this is that that class was a CP class that my former teacher had recommend I take. So while sometimes it may be good for students to branch out and challenge themselves, other times it's a good idea to take into account what the teacher has recorded for notes on that student and go from there.
Here is an article that I found supporting the claim of the video and the two articles:
https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/getting-children-off-the-track/
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