In my high school, there were different levels of classes (basic, academic, honors, and AP offered the juniors and seniors) for math, English, history and science. The arts, elective classes, gym, and foreign languages consisted of a mix of academic levels of students (with the exception of AP courses). I found that this system worked very well, though I can also see some negatives to this type of education. On the positive side, as a student I was able to pick and choose my strengths. For example, in my junior year I was able to take honors history and English, while choosing academic math and science. This provided a good mix of students to interact with, as I was able to meet students on almost all academic levels. Plus, in my electives I was able to mingle with every type of student, from those who were struggling or even on the borderline of dropping out, to those who were taking a full load of honors and AP classes. Meanwhile in my core subject classes I could truly work to my full potential. Also, no student was stuck in a track. For example, I went from academic calculus in my junior year, to taking AP calculus in my senior. Therefore, if ever a student felt they had the potential to be successful in a higher level class, in most situations they were able to change their schedule without any trouble.
On the downside, what frustrated me the most was the difference between academic level classes and honors level classes. Because the course difficulty level was so different from one to the other, I do not see how many students in academic levels could EVER move to honors, even if they had the potential. This comes down to the teaching, however. In the academic classes, most teachers were much more lenient with the work and due dates, less reading was assigned, and everything moved at a MUCH slower pace. I understand some of those attributes, but they were taken to the extreme in some cases, to the point where I felt I was not learning anything at all. Also, in some cases the honors students would talk badly about the academic or basic level students and vice versa. Rather than helping eachother to grow and learn and better themselves as students and as human beings in general, the different levels would make fun of eachother and in some cases grew to hate eachother. This frustrated me to no end, and perhaps if all classes were mixed, the helping eachother factor would be more prevalent.
Overall, I do think the way they ran classes at my high school was a good idea. I was able to be challenged to my academic level, and in cases where the academic classes seemed like a joke, it was mostly the teacher's fault, not the system. Plus, while many argue that you aren't able to interact with people outside your academic level, I say this is not true. Arts, foreign languages, and other electives provided the perfect opportunity to mix and mingle with all types of people, and I do believe that is one of the most important parts of schooling. Learning to interact and deal with all types of people AND learning that there certainly are different types of intelligence (many of the "basic level" students were far more intelligent in some areas than any of my "honors student" classmates) is definitely one of the most important skills in not just school, but in life.
