Detracked Ninth-Grade English: Apprenticeship for the Work and World of High School and Beyond

Abstract

In this article, I argue that 9th-grade English can be a fertile environment for demonstrating that students who come to high school with diverse skill levels and from racially and socioeconomically diverse communities can learn with and from each other. It is not enough, however, that the 9th-grade English teacher believes that all students can succeed with challenging tasks and that she has a moral commitment to academic equity. Teachers must provide a focused, rigorous, and supportive curriculum that acknowledges and builds on the skills of high and middle achievers and establishes for low achievers a strong foundation that provides the scaffold for their taking on identities as readers and writers. I describe the 9th-grade English reading and writing curriculum developed as a detracking advocate and discuss the theoretical foundations for that curriculum. I also argue that if students are to be apprenticed into the academic life of a high school, detracking efforts must go beyond 9th-grade English.