While I was reading the articles on tracking and segregation I was really shocked to see how naive I am/was. I never realized the trends in tracking and the negative effects that it had on students.

As for segregation, I went to a high school in Davidson County that, not kidding, had about 7 "minority" students. I never saw that as segregation, just an issue of location but reading about the segregation of school areas, it made me look at it really differently.

I guess I just didn't see the obvious. Is this a similar trend with the rest of you all?

I had the same type of high school as you. I only had about 6 or 7 minority students at my school. The difference is that I could see that there was racism involved at our school and that some minority students transferred to other schools within the county.

Why is it that when the topic of segregration comes up that race become the topic that is discussed most often. There are other groups that can be segergrated in schools. For example there are differences in religious backgrounds, athletes and non athletes, economic background. I think these as well as others can be just as if not more segregrated in schools.

In regards to the tracking the article mentioned:
How many of you were in AG programs or something of that sort?
Were your elementary classes divided based on reading levels within class, forming groups for the different levels like the "busy bees" down to the "reaching for the stars?"
Once you reached high school, who all had to decide in ninth grade what track they would follow, be it technical college, four-year university, or just basic curriculum?
I remember each of these aspects of my education and realized at the times of occurence that separation of students was being done based on alleged abilities. I also remember knowing that it was rare for kids to move upward into higher groups or tracks. That last comment was true about segregation occuring not only by race. I hope that, having realized this, we as educators will work extra hard to overcome the "need" for tracking and ability grouping. And why not, if all the research says that grouping achieves no purpose save negative ones???