I live in an area with a lot of hispanics. One thing I've noticed is that at school functions, there seems to be a relatively poor turnout of hispanic parents. They're not absent. There just aren't as many as I'd think. (Subjective evaluation here, no statistics.)

I was listening to NPR on the way in - only caught part of the article and not sure what it was about. But, it was a little interesting.

There was this hispanic woman (in, I think, California, but I'm not sure) who was like a liaison between the school and the parents. I'm not sure if she was a PTA president or a counselor or just a concerned parent. Anyways, she's talking to this other hispanic mother and then NPR interviews the mother.

The mother had previously thought that being in the PTA was reserved for certain parents who had some kind of education on how to help out at the school. She was shocked to find out that not only was she allowed to help, but was encouraged to do so. Apparently where she's from (don't recall the country of origin), it's considered extremely rude and disrespectful to the teachers for a parent to get involved with the school.

k

I used to tutor a Laotian-American girl (Iu-Mien) in Latin, math, and general sciences. (she's now in college.) She was born in this country and spoke English natively. I never tutored her in English and was amazed to discover that she was in an ESL class. On parents night, my wife and I, in loco parentis and with her mom's permission, went to visit her school and find out why she was in a regular English class. Sitting amongst the other parents, we got an astonished look and double-take from the teacher, who at first thought we might be Russians (we were the only Europeans in the room besides the teacher). We were unable to get her out of the ESL class, and we never got a straight answer about how she'd come to be placed in one: tests, etc.? The math class was even worse. There was a permanent substitute teaching that class, again mainly with all non-European ethnicities represented. (I saw most of the same students and parents as I trudged from class to class. Tracking?) The teacher also was a self-proclaimed math-idiot. My impression was that parents didn't show up because they were embarassed or intimidated by the teachers and the school. They all showed up for the graduation though.

How long ago was this? Where was it? This is the sort of thing that would have me calling the school and standing on someone's desk till I got an answer. I can be obnoxious without even trying. When I put my mind to it, well, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

I'm not sure this is "tracking." I was tracked myself and it was a great experience for me. My understanding is that tracking is done by some semi-objective basis, like test scores. What you're describing just sounds like laziness and robotic beaurocracy. "See, I checked this box and did this thing, so I've done my job." Correcly or not, I always think of tracking as opposed to "mainstreaming" where they just lump everybody together in a classroom and teach to the lowest common denominator. (Actually, a really good teacher can do this well, but I don't think it's a pure skill so much as an art, and the one's who really are good at it are pretty rare.)

k

About seven years ago. She got into a non-ESL class by the time she got to High School. I was tracked, too, and it was not a problem. This just seemed like reverse-tracking to me: they're all foreign (i.e., non-Anglo), so stick 'em in an ESL class. Her spoken English was more "standard" than some. She was very timid and quiet, which may also have added something into the mix. BTW, they still have tracking with AP classes, they're just elective now.