Although detracking may be a recent addition to Emmaus High School, it is not a new concept to the Lehigh Valley — Freedom High School (FHS) has been detracked since 2008, and Liberty High School (LHS), since 2021, both located in the Bethlehem Area School District.
Prior to being detracked, one of the tracks was labeled “applied,” which was below College Prep (CP). During the 2008-2009 and 2021-2022 school years respectively, the applied course was removed, and all applied students were shifted into the CP course. As in EHS, the Bethlehem Area School District’s goal was to increase classroom diversity.
George Ziegler, a former Freedom High School teacher and English Department Chair, and Ellyce Nieves, a current Liberty High School teacher, have both been affected by detracking within their classrooms.
FHS has seen increases in their class diversity, but classes have also become larger within the school.
“The classes might have more of a diverse makeup…but if class sizes were too large, or teachers did not have enough support, it becomes difficult to meet the wider range of student needs in one room,” Ziegler said.
The educational gaps within Freedom High School are similar in several ways to those expressed by teachers at EHS. Ziegler believes that these divides form within a classroom, it affects the academic standards of the district, which is meant to provide challenging coursework that keep students stimulated while also helping students remain caught up on course material.
“Students that need more support may have felt overwhelmed…” Ziegler said. “Other students who were [in] college prep may not have felt challenged enough.”
Much like some EHS teachers, some FHS teachers felt they were left in a position where they couldn’t help their students, showing a common trend of teacher unfavorability towards detracking across these schools.
“I had teachers who did not really feel able to meet the needs of all their students,” Ziegler said.
Many debate over how detracking is treated and evaluated for success.
“Districts should avoid presenting detracking as an automatic solution. They need to study the results carefully and ask whether students are actually learning more. Whether they’re feeling supported and succeeding at higher levels,” Ziegler said.
While detracking is not an automatic fix, the intent behind detracking is viewed as a good idea.
“I support the intent behind detracking, especially when it’s about equity and access for students…” Ziegler said.
“But schools have to be honest. Good intentions alone are not enough.” Although FHS has been detracked longer, LHS has also seen very similar effects appearing in the 5 years the change has been in place.
“The school district wanted to create more equitable classrooms and ensure that students didn’t feel singled out for being in a ‘lower track,’” Nieves said.
The actual practice, execution, and result of detracking is subject to debate.
“There’s definitely some increased diversity in the class, but it isn’t super significant. I would say out of a class of 28 [students] that maybe five or six students are from different [socioeconomic] backgrounds,” Nieves said.
According to Nieves, a portion of Liberty teachers have also felt detracking has negatively impacted students due to the education gaps present within classrooms.
“The thing that I’ve heard more frequently from [teachers] is that they spend so much time trying to get the students who are below level to be caught up that they don’t have time to focus on the students who are on level,” Nieves said.
At both LHS and FHS, the reasons to detrack and the effects of its implementation are similar to those at EHS. The similarities apparent within Liberty and Freedom high schools could point to the fact that detracking has and will continue to affect EHS in similar ways, both by increasing educational gaps within classrooms, and adding diversity, albeit on a smaller scale.
