DIFFERENTIATION AND OPPORTUNITY IN RESTRUCTURED SCHOOLS

In this article, the authors examine the responses of 24 highly restru ctured schools to a persisting tension in American education: balancin g the competing aims of providing students with common experiences, on the one hand, and addressing differences among individual students, o n the other. Conventional schools typically respond to this dilemma by dividing students for instruction into different tracks and ability g roups. Because of tracking's role in promoting inequality, however, ma ny restructured schools have tried to minimize such differentiated str uctures. Data from the highly restructured schools show that eliminati on of tracking is a goal that is idealized more often than it is achie ved. Detracking appeared to face more barriers in secondary than in el ementary schools, and it was resisted in math more than in other subje cts. High-quality instruction appeared both in the high tracks of some structurally differentiated schools and in a few heterogeneous classe s in schools that eliminated tracking. More in-depth analyses of two s chools that allocated high-quality instruction to a wide range of stud ents show that neither heterogeneous nor homogeneous grouping present insurmountable barriers to high-quality instruction, but neither appro ach ensures effective teaching, either. Conditions that supported high -quality instruction in a heterogeneous context included small class s izes, extra resources that permit a highly individualized approach to instruction, strong intellectual leadership, and the opportunity to se lect teachers and students. Conditions that supported effective instru ction in the context of structural differentiation included a commitme nt to equity across classes, teacher and student selection of courses, and teachers' intellectual commitment to subject matter.