When the majority gets left out.

Education is an important thing in life because it provides opportunities to those who would have never been given one before. Education is a way out of poverty, it changes generations of families and it provides security. At the high school level it is important because it provides a foundation for the following years out of high school. During high school I was in International Baccalaureate program that provided students challenging courses that taught them at a college level. The students in these courses as myself had advantages compared to the other students who were not in these classes such as access to the best teachers, variety of classes, more books, liberty and learning opportunities. For example, those in IB classes could chose which classes they wanted to take and got priority, like choosing psychology courses and different history class. Those who were not in in IB had no choice on which classes they were offered to. Student who were taking these classes had autonomy and freedom to make their own decisions . IB students were left out of class more often when asked to go to the computer lab, library and off campus compared to other students who were not trusted enough to let out of class at all. 

This was a big issue because, student who were not in these courses did not have the option to say they were going print or study in the library. I know first hand about these differences because my twin sister was in these classes. I had freedom and teachers who would challenge me compared to her classmates. For example, a book that was assigned to read my freshman year was their senior book to read.There are big differences as well as who was in these classes which majority were white students and only a couple minorities. Tracking is essentially what the IB program is doing it is separating the "smart" students from the not so smart ones. The IB program challenges students in order to prepare them for college, however the IB program, only accepts 21 percent of student leaving the rest of the students to regular classes. The school's population of minorities 87 percent, the other 13 percent being majority students who were part of the IB program. The important reason to discuss the tracking between the students who were in the advanced courses and the regular were that it does not prepare them for college. For the entire high school Fresno High School ranked 14.4 percent in college readiness. The other regular classes were not challenges students to stride to their best abilities, instead they were asked to do just the minimum. 

The majority of the school students are minorities and the fact that they are not given the opportunity to attend college bound courses puts that at risk for failure and dropping out of school. The policies of the school to have the "smarter students" in these advance courses causes discrimination in the education the students are receiving. The minority students are not receiving college bound classes that can help them when they graduate high school. The IB program discriminates certain students when they enroll in this program. As the book mentions many Latinos are under represented in the advance courses. In the long run it effects their education capacity because these students are not being challenged enough to care about doing well in school. The graduation rate and college acceptance rate it also greatly differ in where the IB students get accepted to a four year university and the other students are not as encouraged to apply to a four year, but rather a community college. Tracking as we have seen effects students capacity to grow not only as a student, but as an individual.

Even though the laws no longer permit, racial segregation or discrimination, we have learned that different groups get treated differently. People of color are always targeted more then Whites and Asians. Even though the No Child Left Behind Act was form in order to "help children" achieve a certain level of learning outcomes, by taking away resources if they did not met left many children who are poor with far less resources. The consequences to taking away resources especially in impoverished communities are devastating because these communities already are undeserved and don't have money to even provide a good education that by taking the resources makes their education harder. Even if the education system is suppose to provide a fair and no cost education, tracking creates a segregation within the quality of education.  On the surface there should be no reason for racism to effect schools, however on the ground level the students receiving the best education, best classes and motivation are those who are white. The students getting the teachers who don't care or classes that are not college prepped are almost always black and brown students.