Access to Rigorous Curricula, Demanding Teaching & Needed Support

2. School policy seeks to ensure that students of all races and ethnicities have access to rigorous courses, such as honors and AP.

3. Tracking and inflexible ability grouping for instruction are not allowed.

4. School policy provides that struggling students will receive the extra time and support they need to achieve academically.

Students can't learn what they do not have a chance to learn. Students from low-income families are more likely to get a larger proportion of their learning opportunities from school than students from higher-income homes. And, of course, English language learners are heavily dependent on schools for their academic learning opportunities. However, for a host of reasons—some the consequence of well-meaning instructional practices, some related to biases and misconceptions, and some because students themselves do not seek more rigorous curricula—students of color are often less likely than white students and many Asian-descent students to be engaged in more rigorous coursework.

Among the issues here is, of course, how students are selected for gifted and talented programs, honors courses or Advanced Placement courses. Even more important, however, are grouping strategies, instructional practices and teacher expectations that shape what and how students are taught in all of their courses.

Of course, students differ in their readiness to profit from challenging curricula and demanding teaching. The resources below provide guidance to educators to help them move students to more demanding content as quickly as they are able to handle it. Among the issues dealt with are:

• Disproportionate assignment to special education;
• The difference between language facility and academic readiness;
• Grouping students for instruction;
• Teacher expectations; 
• Combining high demand with high support; and
• Educators' assumptions about the role of culture in shaping student learning.

One of the more common ways that students experience different levels of academic rigor is that they are tracked and grouped by "ability" (students are invariably grouped by achievement, not ability). Grouping is a common and often necessary practice. How it is done is the key to student success. Research is clear that tracking (formal or informal) or inflexible ability grouping disadvantages most students. However, ending tracking and rigid ability grouping is complicated. For example, when schools "de-track," educators should be aware that students bring with them to new learning experiences what they have learned about themselves and others from being in a tracked environment (Rubin, 2008).

All students need support but this is particularly true, of course, for students who are falling behind. The further behind students get, the more resources are needed to bring them up to speed. Thus, continuing assessment and early intervention focused sharply on specific student needs—like the one-on-one tutoring provided in Success for All—are critical to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to learn at high levels. Students of different races may respond differently to teachers' high demands. High demand without support can actually undermine student motivation.

Look at these resources first.
Kris Gutierrez believes that there is too much of a focus on traditional forms of remediation to help struggling students and that educators need enrich their students' learning opportunities in new ways.

Learn how schools can develop comprehensive plans for preventing inappropriate and ineffective referrals of culturally and linguistically diverse students to special education.

Jeannie Oakes shows there is little evidence to support the fundamental theories underlying ability grouping that is not limited and tightly focused on specific learning needs.

Robert Slavin makes the case that excessive grouping has persisted despite evidence that it can be, and often is, counter-productive.

Tracking and Rigid "Ability" Grouping
Examine a review of research on tracking and "ability grouping" authored by Willis Hawley.

Avoiding a Deficit View of Student Capabilities
Sonia Nieto argues that too often educators have a deficit view of the experiences students bring with them to school and that teachers need to build on students' strengths.

High Expectations and Support Go Hand-in-Hand
Ronald Ferguson (2004) has found that African American students who are struggling are more motivated than higher achieving students when teachers hold high expectations for them—but only if they receive substantial support. Read a report of this research.

Differentiated Instruction
Read this introduction to differentiated instruction. This resource includes references to other sources.