Use of Ability Grouping

Use of Ability Grouping

How widespread is ability grouping? No reliable national surveys of ability grouping in elementary schools have been conducted, but a consistent picture emerges from several local studies. According to the article “Ability-Group Effects: Instructional, Social, or Institutional?,” (Pallas, 1994) ability grouping for reading instruction appears nearly universal, especially in the early grades. Schools seek to create teachable groups of children within classes containing a broad range of skills, from students who independently breeze through children's novels to those who have yet to learn basic letter sounds. Ability grouping in math is less frequent and only in the upper grades, but remains rare at the elementary level.

Critics

Critics of ability grouping argue that it doesn't improve achievement and is harmful to students. Such grouping should be banned, says Anne Wheelock, author of Crossing the Tracks: How "Untracking" Can Save America's Schools. She argues that the practice of grouping by ability is too widespread and too widely accepted; about 60 percent of elementary schools practice some form of whole-class ability grouping, including special classes for gifted students. Survey results published in Education Week in 1995 found that two-thirds of U.S. high schools were at least moderately tracked.

Ability tracking is harmful for a number of reasons. The criteria used to group kids are based on subjective perceptions and fairly narrow views of intelligence (Slavin, 1990). Tracking leads students to take on labels, both in their own minds as well as in the minds of their teachers, that are usually associated with the pace of learning (such as "slow" or "fast" learners). Because of this, we...

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Hopkins, G. (2003). Is ability grouping the way to go---or should it go away? Retrieved April 10, 2004, from http://www.education-world.com/a_admin/admin009.shtml

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Rogers, K. B. (1991). The relationship of grouping practices to the education of the gifted and talented learner. Retrieved April 14, 2004, from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/rogers.html

Swiatek, M. A. (1997). Answers to common questions about ability grouping. Retrieved April 5, 2004, from http://www.cmu.edu/cmites/abilitygrouping.html