In second grade, I was called out of class from our free time with a few other students to go take a test. I had to draw and was told to “be as creative as possible” for the best results.

After completing the test, I had to gather information from other students’ whispers to figure out that this was a test to determine whether or not I would be a good fit for an “accelerated track” later on in my education. 

“Accelerated” and “regular” tracked programs are commonly seen in education today, with a student entering a program or “hopping on a track” around sixth grade and sticking to one or the other until graduation. In my particular case, if a student wished to drop an accelerated class and transfer to a regular course, they would be unable to jump back onto the original track after. This consequence led me to have almost all accelerated courses until the end of my senior year.

After a review of my test, I was selected to be in the program. This was a good thing because it meant I had more opportunities to challenge myself as a student and potentially earn college credit if I stuck with it all the way through. This could be an opportunity for me to flourish. 

After taking the test, I could already see the shift in tone between my classmates. Students were poking fun at each other, saying that only the “smart kids” got to take the test and it created an unhealthy divide within the classroom. Students had made the divide on their own. With the addition of this program, it reinforced those ideas.

The stark contrast between a classroom with AP students versus a classroom with on-level is mind-boggling. In my AP Language class throughout my junior year, we would write an essay in 50 minutes, but the English 11 classes would have two weeks to write an introduction paragraph. This comparison is one of many showing how vastly different one classroom may be to another.

This separation between class levels is too large of a gap to be left unnoticed. Students who would like to challenge themselves are forced to choose between classes where they are pushed to extremes that are the opposite of one another.

Modifications to academic tracks are vital for student success throughout their academic career and must be made to better fit a larger population of students so they do not fall through the cracks. With the programs set as is, there are too many students in between who are not being properly accommodated.

Through my experiences, I have also noticed that students who take different courses than others have different opportunities and resources. As a student who took an on-level algebra course, I was not informed of how my scores or other information would affect me throughout the rest of my high school experience and leading into college. However, I had multiple opportunities in my accelerated classes to have discussions with teachers over preparing for college or finding resources that would help me in the future.

In my AP classes, I was looked at differently when I told people that I had not applied to an out-of-state college. In my on-level classes, I was told to consider trade school, if any schooling at all. 

By being a student who’s been on both tracks, I have seen the differences in expectations between the two. I appreciate my AP classes for pushing me to become well-rounded in picking up content, but not as much as I appreciated my on-level classes for giving me a breather. 

While I understand that the two are different for a reason, I also feel that there should not be a time in the school day where students have the same experience as me where they go from a class where they struggle to grasp difficult content to a class where they play Jenga.