I am just wondering how common this practice is in determining school classes. Until this year in our school system classes had been determined on a random basis. My daughter is in eighth grade, and the kids are assigned a homeroom class, and that class moves from class to class throughout the day together.

The homeroom assignments are posted on the front door of the school the Friday before school starts so the kids can go see what homeroom they are in. In elementary school my daughter would see the list and then all weekend ask me is so and so in my class, etc. so we began to write down all the class lists (there are 3 in her grade) so she could look at the lists at home for reference. We have continued that practice through middle school as well.

This year we copied the lists, and I was looking at them at home when something popped off the page at me. The kids were not randomly placed as in previous years, but they were assigned by what appears to be grade point average. Until last year there were two honor rolls - all A and honor roll (3.0-3.9). With a new principal came a new system - All A, honor roll (3.5-3.9) and merit roll (3.0-3.49). It was clear that the kids who are consistently on the All A were all assigned to the same homeroom, the kids who are usually on the merit and honor rolls were in my daughter's class, and the kids who rarely or never get on the honor roll are in the third homeroom.

This was obvious to the kids as well, and it has created a problem. In middle school where there is already enough drama, kids are now referring to their classes as the smart class, the stupid class, etc. This opens up the kids in the one class to a lot of cruelty and humiliation.

I have no idea why this was done, but I just can't understand the thinking behind it. I thought that perhaps it was to give kids who need it extra help before they head to high school next year, and that maybe the smartest kids might be challenged with extra projects or work to determine their ability to handle advanced courses in high school. However, it wasn't done in just the eighth grade - it was done through the whole middle school as I understand it.

It just made me wonder if other schools do this too. I feel so bad for the kids who are in that third class. My daughter has a close friend in that class, and the girl said, "I guess the office just considers us the stupid class." That's sad.

Our local district doesn't do this. However, the next town down the road does. I don't approve. To make matters worse, the district that does starts in 2nd grade. I don't think it's fair to the teachers. The teacher in the 'smartest' class will have an easier to teach group than the other teachers. I would honestly feel sorry for the teacher in the lowest class. I don't see how they could possibly handle a whole class of students that need extra help. In a mixed class sometimes the smarter students are able to help the struggling students.
Seems to me you need to talk with other parents and voice your opinions to the principal. Of course, the parents with students in the top class aren't going to see a problem. The complaints will have to come from the other two classes.
I don't see how scheduling works this way. All the students in the same homeroom can't possibly have the same elective classes such as band, PE or art.

Actually with regard to the scheduling of special classes - yes all the kids in one homeroom have the same special classes. The three classes - gym, computer and art rotate on a twelve week schedule. So during one period of the day, one whole homeroom has gym for twelve weeks, one room has art and the other has computer. Each twelve weeks it switches. My daughter's homeroom has gym this twelve weeks.

I find that scheduling weird, too, since the grading periods are 4 nine week ones in the year. For example, my daughter has gym - when she gets her first nine week's report card, there will be no grade for gym. The second nine week's report card will have the gym grade on it. They get one final grade in those three classes on the next report card after the twelve weeks ends. Whatever she has the last twelve weeks will have its grade on her final report card at the end of the year.

With regard to band, you must choose either band or choir. The last period of the day is band and choir so in that case you go to whichever one of the two you have.

I haven't taught in several years, but that sounds like the old "tracking" system. Didn't that become illegal?

I thought that U.S. schools now had to be as close to mirror images of the other classes now as possible - especially since "No Child Left Behind" will have serious ramifications for the teachers whose classes don't perform successfully.

Again, I've been away for a while...doesn't sound legal, though.

My son is elementary so I have no idea how there classes are assigned. However, DH is a teacher at the county HS and homerooms there are assigned based off your last name. His homeroom class is all sophomores who last names range from A-Fa.

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I have no clue about the practice being legal. However, it's still alive and well. I can't even begin to imagine the self esteem of the children in the lower classes. Of course, some students don't give a hoot.
There was another mom at middle school (5-6) that thought her children should be in class only with students as smart as her child. What an ego!!

I know here in elementary & middle they take excrutiating time to spread the kids out equally - ie: equal numbers of smart, disruptive, ADD, well behaved, girls, boys, etc. It's not always completely equal, like my 5th grade daughter has more girls than boys, but there's more girls this year. Sometimes the more experienced teachers may get an extra one that is hard to handle, but I know at both schools they try very hard to spread them all out across the board. I can't imagine them dividing them out by ability. That seems so unfair and hard on the kids egos. It also seems like when the mix them up, they learn from each other.

Lisa

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In our school district the only distinction made (and believe me, it is a TEDIOUS and arduous process balancing classes) has to do with racial balance, gender balance and whether there are some students who just cannot be in the same classes because of issues. It would be intolerable to me as a district staff AND EVEN MORE SO AS A PARENT if classes were selected based on levels and the levels were not intermingled but rather segregated. And, I speak this way as a parent of two straight-A students whose children would probably most benefit from this detestable segregation. I would fight this tooth and nail.

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As far as middle school goes here, it goes by last name. From there, the kids are broken down in to "sections." 611, 612, etc. My dd's been in the top section all of middle school. I'm not sure WHAT criteria they use to determine what section you are in, whether it's strictly grades or scores on the PSSA tests.

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Here my dd was placed in advance classes for middle school, there are also honor classes and I guess just regular classes.

As for elementary they did have a class with the gifted kids together, but that is because they went to the gifted program 2 times a week and the teacher was sent in other kids from different classes that needed extra help. This helped with the classes size math that they do, to keep the numbers down per teacher, student ratio. It's really new funky math. This year they are not doing this class of all gifted.