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EOG Performance for Black Students <br />75 <br />73 I <br />I <br />71 <br />69 <br />67 - CHCCS <br />OCS <br />65 NC <br />63 <br />61 <br />59 <br />R <br />57 <br />55 <br />Black '01 -02 Black '02 -03 Black '03 -04 <br />Academic Year <br />Figure 8. EOG Performance for Black Students 2001 -2004 <br />Both districts have made steady progress in improving the academic achievement of <br />their minority students. This process is not merely an issue of test scores. It encompasses <br />decisions about individualization and grouping, about access to enrichment activities, after - <br />school programs, teams and cultural activities, and finally community commitment and <br />morale. Inclusion in heterogeneous classrooms may well provide children of all groups with <br />educational experiences that recognize them as competent and promising participants in <br />their schools. <br />Heterogeneous Classrooms <br />Both districts have shaped environments to support the achievement of all children <br />in heterogeneous, inclusive classes. Responding to research and the national consensus that <br />tracking undermines weak students without sufficiently strengthening students who are <br />already strong, the districts have, in most cases, created classroom environments that mix <br />children of various abilities, genders, races and ethnicities. The move to classroom <br />heterogeneity involves placing clusters of students with particular learning needs in classes <br />across grade levels. It is clear that in both districts the process of student placement is <br />accomplished with great care, balancing for diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, <br />exceptionality, and clustering children so that each child finds peers in the classroom who <br />constitute both a social and an instructional cohort. <br />Heterogeneous classrooms, however, require teachers and specialists working <br />together to address the needs of diverse students (e.g., gifted students, learning disabled <br />students, second language students, or students having difficulty with mathematics or <br />reading) in one classroom. In addition to the regular classroom teacher, these specialists <br />visit all the classes in a grade, working side by side with the regular classroom teacher to <br />maintain quality instruction for all students. While more extensive in CHCCS than in OCS - <br />where there are still pull -out sessions for academically gifted students - the heterogeneous <br />CHCCS /OCS Final Report 66 <br />