I wonder if the Principal is confusing tracking w/ ability grouping. The latest research on ability group indicates it does work. I've not seen any research that focuses on how the kids are performing as opposed to politics that indicates ability grouping doesn't work. If you had 6 classrooms and 6 Hispanic kids learning English, would they split them up 1 to each class to make it fair to the teacher? I would hope they would group them somehow so they have someone who speaks their language in their class. But that's what they do to gifted kids. We have about 7 K classes. They are tested for reading ability just before school starts. Do they use that info to group kids together so they can have a reading group? Nope, they use it to spread the kids out so it's fair to the teacher - at least that's what they do at my son's school. That ensured that he would have no one at his reading level to be a in a group which meant he got no reading instruction.
