Moving Beyond Equal Access: Detracking a High School’s Mathematics Program
Lolita A. Tabron 1 , Richard Kitchen 2 * , Brianna Mestas 3
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1 Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Denver, USA2 School of Teacher Education, University of Wyoming, USA3 Department of Teaching and Learning Sciences, University of Denver, USA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Students of color in the United States have historically been denied access to a college-preparatory mathematics education largely due to tracking policies and practices. To address this historical injustice, a partnership was developed between a highly diverse high school and higher education to initiate a collaborative process to detrack the mathematics program at the school. We report the results from empathy interviews conducted with the “Franklin High” administrative team and mathematics teachers. The four primary themes that emerged from the interviews concerned the school’s student diversity, the focus on preparing students to enter the IB course sequence, how detracking must go beyond simply providing equal access, and the importance of the Franklin High staff having an equity-oriented growth mindset. These findings accentuate how successful detracking efforts require stakeholders to have an historical understanding of the racist policies and practices that have led to segregated schools and tracked classrooms.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 17, Issue 9, September 2021, Article No: em2000

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11131

Publication date: 08 Aug 2021

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Article Downloads: 1328

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