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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

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tracking

Learn more about tracking

Be the meteorologist
Students use internet data to plot the path of a hurricane over several days. At designated points, students will decide which areas of the coast to put under a hurricane warning and will justify their decisions. This lesson uses real weather data and allows students to "be the meteorologist."
Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Science)
Chestnut Ridge Camp and Retreat Center
Offers a selection of informative, interactive and experientially-based programs in outdoor and environmental education.
Format: article/field trip opportunity
IEP Notebook
Forms for tracking modifications made for exceptional students.
Format: document
Tracking animals
Large groups of children are likely to scare off mammals, but they can learn to identify tracks to learn more about the animals that left them.
By Linda Dow.
If he's in danger of failing, at least three people need to know it
In The First Year, page 4.1
Get in touch with parents to prevent students' failure, not just to report on it.
By Kristi Johnson Smith.

Find all 50 resources in our collection.

Division of students based on academic skill level. Students are “tracked” into a particular course of study intended to match cognitive abilities and to prepare students for an appropriate post-graduate future (college or university, trade school, or employment).

See also ability grouping, heterogeneous grouping, homogeneous grouping.

Additional information

Track placement may be based on a combination of student achievement, IQ, and teacher evaluation. High school graduation in North Carolina is based on student selection of one of four content area courses of study, or pathways: career prep, college tech prep, college/university prep, or occupational prep.

Critics argue that tracking limits a student’s opportunities to pursue a chosen course of study and thus narrows future opportunities, particularly for minority students. Tracking is an extremely divisive issue. For further discussion, see Education Week’s issue page on tracking.