On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the 21st-Century Struggle Against Resegregation

• In Event: Looking Back and Moving Forward: Tracking, Detracking, and Equity in the 21st Century

Abstract

Since the beginning of the last century, the sorting of students into different “tracks” has resulted in segregated classrooms and unequal learning opportunities for students. On the Same Track traces the development of tracking, from its beginnings in the early 20th century to today. As Carol Corbett Burris takes readers through its history, she argues that tracking first served to perpetuate de facto segregation within districts that were ordered by the courts to desegregate. Drawing on the latest research, she shows how tracking results in achievement gaps and racial and class stratification. Burris then chronicles the struggles of school leaders, teachers, and parents as they seek to overcome race, class, and intellectual prejudice and dismantle the student sorting systems in their schools. Finally, she provides timely caution regarding how some of the present-day reforms may in fact result in further racial and socioeconomic segregation, undermining some of the progress that schools have made in creating more equitable learning experiences for children.

Author

• Carol A. Burris, South Side High School