Hidden Curriculum

Hidden curriculum...the curriculum that is not directly stated but evident through entire structure of our school day. Students understanding how to wait in line, raise their hand before speaking or to simply understand that they may need to wait a minute until the teacher can get around to helping if two others have asked before them. All of these things make sense to prepare our students for the world--for a trip to Disney, perhaps! What disturbed me was the idea that teachers would group students based upon clothing, family income, cleanliness, etc. Our text states that this practice is dangerous because most tracking brings about inequities. Our school tracks students in both math and language arts. I had actually put a stop to the grouping of all gifted students in one class of language arts only to have the gifted coordinator cluster two groups of gifted in two of my classes. Once I was able to spread the gifted equally throughout my language arts classes, a 2nd year teacher came along and in order to work on a project for one of her master's classes was able to group all gifted students into a gifted integrated literacy class. Of course the effect on all of the rest of the classes was that these students, now removed from the general population, created classes of average and below average groupings. Additionally these gifted students, who are mostly together for the gifted math class also follow each other around most of the day which in effect, segregates them for the rest of the student population. Additionally, there has been teaming implemented in the higher grades with a larger gifted population on one team. This team has taken more field trips and has more project-based learning in place. This is a glaring example of inequity that exists in our school.
I spend an enormous time analyzing my students in order to group them in heterogeneous tables. I take into consideration gender, reading level and academic achievement. My groupings can only be as heterogeneous as the students who are assigned to my classes. I will again fight to have this grouping stopped again next year and am currently gathering data from my classes to support my case. I have been collecting anecdotal data based upon group work, test score averages and assignment completion. Does anyone else have this type of situation at their school and offer suggestions of what to do about it?