This page is filled with posts that depict how the issue of ability-grouping is seen and heard in our society…
"The controversy offers a very important lesson about how education policy gets implemented in schools...
Schools are not merely the last step of a vast organizational ladder, not simply the education system’s operational frontline, ready to put in place the policies that are passed down from above. Finley Peter Dunne famously observed that the U.S. Supreme Court “follows the election returns.” Court decisions not only reflect the U.S. Constitution but public opinion as well. Our schools are another institution with an ear to the ground. Educators are aware of public debates and are influenced when particular school practices become controversial."The History, Practice, Perils
and Alternatives to Grouping Students
According to Their Perceived Abilities...
"A substantial number of teachers believe that heterogeneous classes are difficult to teach. The 2008 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher asked teachers to react to the following statement:
“My class/classes in my school have become so mixed in terms of students’ learning ability that I/teachers can’t teach them.”Responses were: 14% “agree strongly,” 29% “agree somewhat,” 28% “disagree somewhat,” and 27% “disagree strongly.” The percentages are surprising given the questionnaire’s blunt assertion that heterogeneous classes are impossible to teach."
"Outside Looking In"
by Jordan Pruitt
You don't know my name
you don't know anything about me
I try to play nice
I want to be in your game
The things that you say
You may think I never hear about them
But word travels fast
I'm telling you to your face
I'm standing here behind your back
[Chorus:]
You don't know how it feels
To be outside the crowd
You don't know what it's like
To be left out
And you don't know how it feels
To be your own best friend on the outside looking in
If you could read my mind
You might see more of me than meets the eye
And you've been all wrong
Not who you think I am
You've never given me a chance
[Chorus:]
You don't know how it feels
To be outside the crowd
You don't know what it's like
To be left out
And you don't know how it feels
To be your own best friend on the outside looking in
Well, I'm tired of staying at home
I'm bored and all alone
I'm sick of wasting all my time
[Chorus (x2):]
You don't know how it feels
To be outside the crowd
You don't know what it's like
To be left out
And you don't know how it feels
To be your own best friend on the outside looking in
You don't know how it feels
To be outside the crowd
You don't know what it's like
To be left out
And you don't know how it feels
To be your own best friend on the outside looking in
Ability Grouping in Education: Pros, Cons & Quiz
Learn more about the pros and cons of ability grouping, and test your knowledge with a quiz
"According to The Washington Post more elementary school teachers are ability grouping based on a study of 4th grade teachers that showed an increase from 40 percent in 2006 to 61 percent in 2011, but does it help students?..."
Ability Grouping on the Rise in Classrooms
"Some of our more veteran listeners may remember being grouped by reading ability back in the day. At one point in time, schools were keen on applying bird euphemisms to each level so as to not embarrass anyone. For example, advanced kids could have been called cardinals, average kids might have been called bluebirds, and so forth. A previous Ed Reform Minute highlighted the subject of whether kids should be grouped by intellectual ability."
Grouping Students by Ability Regains Favor in Classroom
 |
| Sharon Shea teaching first grade by skill level at Woodman Park Elementary in Dover, N.H. |
"It was once common for elementary-school teachers to arrange their classrooms by ability, placing the highest-achieving students in one cluster, the lowest in another. But ability grouping and its close cousin, tracking, in which children take different classes based on their proficiency levels, fell out of favor in the late 1980s and the 1990s as critics charged that they perpetuated inequality by trapping poor and minority students in low-level groups.
Now ability grouping has re-emerged in classrooms all over the country — a trend that has surprised education experts who believed the outcry had all but ended its use..."
Unrealized Potential
This article is from The New York Time's The Opinion Pages: Room for Debate and showcases Michael J. Petrilli's thoughts on the issue of ability grouping and tracking. He supports ability grouping and tracking so that advanced students can achieve their full potential...
"Nobody wants to go back to the days of forcing kids into dead-end courses and keeping them there year after year. But if we want to do right by our highest-achieving students — and maintain America’s international competitiveness — we should rethink the move to eradicate tracking."
Click to Read Petrilli's Full Article
I wonder though, is this worth leaving the majority of students behind? Why not think of ways to help all students reach full potential, including the more advanced ones, instead of simply adopting traditional ability grouping or eradicating it. I believe there are other alternatives that are much more effective and equally distributed. See my What Teachers Can Do page.
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