Holton v. City of Thomasville Sch. Dist., No. 06-12984 (11th Cir. July 3, 2007)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (AL, GA, FL) has affirmed that a school district’s program of "ability grouping" or "tracking," in which students are grouped into different academic tracks based on their abilities, does not violate minority students’ equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under the school district's program, teachers first group students in kindergarten and elementary school based on their perceived abilities and actual performance. In middle school, students are placed into classes based mainly on standardized exam scores and performance level recommendations of former teachers. In high school, students choose their own courses under the direction of teachers, counselors, and parents. The Eleventh Circuit stated that a school district is allowed to implement ability-grouping programs "in spite of any segregative effect they may have if the assignment method is not based on the present results of past segregation or will remedy such results through better educational opportunities." The Eleventh Circuit also noted, even though the ability-grouping program has the effect of placing lower-income black students in lower tracks that, by itself, is insufficient to show a constitutional violation. The district court found that the lesser-perceived ability of black students was based on impoverished circumstances more than anything else and concluded that the school district’s method of assignment was not based on the present results of past de jure segregation.
Holton v. City of Thomasville Sch. Dist., No. 06-12984 (11th Cir. July 3, 2007)
[Full opinion]