Behind the Scenes of Tracking

born children lived in poverty in the U.S. (Camarota, 2001). “The primary reason for this is that a very large share of Mexican immigrants lack a formal education” (Camarota, 2001, p. 47). Statistics from the Center for Immigration Studies indicate that the average income for adult Mexican immigrants is less than half the income of U.S. born workers (Camarota, 2001). With the location of the Rio Grande Valley right next to the Mexican border, the school districts in this area are heavily populated with English language learners. According to Linn and Hemmer (2011), a rate of “21% of elementary and secondary students spoke a language other than English at home. Of these, approximately two million, or 75%, spoke Spanish.” (p. 1). In addition, school districts along the Texas-Mexico border are considered at-risk for having English language learners overrepresented in the special education programs. According to Artiles and Ortiz (2002), research shows that “English language learners with the least amount of language support are most likely to be referred to special education” (p. 1). Often the children with the least support are from poor families. Another problems consists of assessments methods, both diagnostic and state mandated, that are inappropriate for English language learners. Even if assessments are provided in the child’s native language, this

the incessant brutality of racism in the 1920s. Rolf de Heer’s 2002 art house feature film The Tracker, represents one of the most “unspeakable aspects of Australian history” (Smaill, 2002, 31), explicitly depicting the extreme racism, violence and inhumanity the egotistical European invaders inflicted on Aboriginals, whilst at the same time glorifies and treasures aboriginal culture and intelligence through film.

The United States Hispanic population continues to increase each year. In turn, school populations of Hispanics increase as well. Hispanics, although improving academically, continue to have high school dropout rates, higher than other racial and ethnic groups and continue to lag behind school peers. The discrepancy between Hispanic students and other students’ achievement is the result of many factors, including acculturalization, language acquisition, poverty, and school factors. Schools

The different perspectives create interest and draw us into the experiences of others. The two texts, ‘The Tracker’ composed by Rolf De Heer and ‘Bran Nue Dae’ composed by Rachel Perkins explores this notion. Both films are evident to the racial discrimination of Aborigines in Australia. ‘The Tracker’ is a 2002 art house film set in 1922. It is clear that there were no Aboriginal rights and which white settlement had the greatest control. ‘Bran Nue Dae’ is a 2009 musical/comedy/drama film set in 1969 about the beginning of Aboriginal rights.The different perspectives are from Colonial/Indigenous people. The voices were through the role of the characters, the genre, the music and the cinematography.

The concept of schooling, and how it differs from education, takes center stage in Angela Valenzuela’s Subtractive Schooling. The book is the culmination of a three-year study of Seguin High School in Houston, TX. Using data analysis as well as extensive observations and interviews, Valenzuela puts a face to the numbers. A significant portion of the book focusses on the role of language in terms of its application to culture. The book also shows a road map to creating relationships with our disenfranchised youth that will lead to authentic learning and positive changes in school culture. Valenzuela’s Subtractive schooling offers a sordid and shocking tale of “what could have been.”

Texas is best known for its individualistic subculture, but that individualism has led to a downfall in the educational system affecting all students in Texas. There are many reasons as to why this problem is currently still being seen, and one of the biggest reasons is inadequate funding. Although inadequate funding is one of the biggest problems, the gaps in the educational system will not be solved simply by providing more funding. Instead, a new system must be created. This new system should reach out to all groups and be more equitable, not just focused on certain groups, such as the Hispanic community. Most importantly, effective teachers with less overcrowded rooms should take place in the new system. With that in mind, the new

Education is the key to individual opportunity, the strength of our economy, and the vitality of our democracy. In the 21st century, this nation cannot afford to leave anyone behind. While the academic achievement and educational attainment of Hispanic Americans has been moving in the right direction, untenable gaps still exist between Hispanic students and their counterparts in the areas of early childhood education, learning English, academic achievement, and high school and college completion.

Understanding a community is essential when planning for instruction. My current placement is at Kofa High School which is a located in an urban community –Yuma, Arizona- with an estimated population of 93,000 people. It is fundamental to recognize that Yuma’s population mostly consists of Hispanic and White people. Although English is mostly spoken in this area, Spanish is commonly heard in the community due to the high Hispanic population.

Although I lived in La Puente, I transferred into the Rowland Unified School District (RUSD) after I finished the 5th grade. Thereafter, I attended middle school and high school in Rowland Heights while living in La Puente. The city of La Puente is largely Hispanic/Latino, and therefore aligning well with my cultural background. Furthermore, considering much of my extended family lived within these bounds, and reared within the context of La Puente, it is apparent that these factors contributed to the centralization of my cultural experiences. For example, the majority of people in La Puente are Spanish-speakers and due to learning English and Spanish at home, I was able to understand

The Banning of Mexican-American Studies in Arizona: The Loss of Freedom in Education The Latino community has a very high high school drop out rate which has been linked to poverty. Tucson Arizona created a Mexican-American studies program in the 1990’s in order to change this. They wanted to, “help student achievement by making learning more relevant” (Suarez).

In Columbus, fiscal resources and man power are limited. Left alone, the schools in Deming have somewhat honored their commitment to a cross-border responsibility by educating students from Mexico. “The school district has done a good job in its honest desire to acknowledge the realities of a regional border life that this practice has continued” (Frase & Poston, 2000) . But this is only a small part of cross-border education, one that in isolation too easily causes other crucial needs that can more richly promote bi-national cavity to developing a strong program of dual language learning. In fact, New Mexico has established a bilingual multicultural education Act in Article 23 of the state’s constitution. This has fostered institutionalizes appreciation for linguistic and cultural variety in the state and in Columbus school districts. The serious commitment to dual language learning in the state has created educational environments that actively honor the bicultural character of the students and their families and launched bilingual and English learning programs with schools in Columbus and across New Mexico. Therefore, schools such as the ones in the Deming district will require many strong leaders for dual language learning that can bring equity issue to the table. “It will take know-how, moxie, and some shaking up in a community that has its own tempo and style of making cross-border educational changes but New Mexico has done a great job on understanding their own border identity and cross border commitments” ( Flores & Murillo,

This paper will dive into four common unwarranted assumptions made from ability grouping (student tracking) and attempt to debunk the ideas. Ability grouping is the common educational practice of separating students based on actual or purported ability in the same grade into different instructional groups with differing levels of aptitude or achievement (Ainsworth 2013). The four assumptions that will follow were researched by the former presidential professor in equity in the graduate school of education and information studies at UCLA, Jeannie Oakes. Ability grouping or student tracking is in fact illegal in the state of California but, institutions still find alternative ways to implement the method.

Tracking is the grouping of students by perceived academic abilities for instruction. As a pedagogical strategy, tracking was initially introduced into U.S. public schools in the early 1900’s as a way to educate and socialize the broadly changing population of urban, northern cities that swelled from European immigration and poor southern black transplants seeking better opportunities. Societal beliefs of the time regarding distinct division of classes and the requisite assimilation of immigrants into American culture resulted in new educational laws that popularized a system that segregated classrooms into “slow, bright and deficient” (Ansalone, 2010, p. 4) levels of learners. Tracking was viewed and used as a practical strategy in

I will now prove that the current formulation of the tracking theory fails to track knowledge in all cases. I will do this by way of a counterexample which Nozick himself raises. Imagine a case in which a grandmother knows that her grandson is well by seeing him. Furthermore, even if the grandson was not well, other family members would still tell the grandmother that he was well to spare her from emotional distress. This clearly violates condition (3) of the tracking theory because in close possible worlds where the grandson is not well, she wouldn 't believe that he is not well. Rather, she would believe that he is well due to the testimony of family members. Nonetheless, the original proposition, “that grandmother knows that her

The objective is to demonstrate wireless user tracking and sensing with 802.11ad for AR and VR applications. The motivation for this objective is to reduce the complex communications and computation that is standard with today’s VR systems and reduce cost by replacing/augmenting conventionally used orientation and tracking sensors.