I can see that this thread has veered into a discussion regarding tracking and SES factors. Regardless of what the various research concludes, at the end of the day, we are most concerned with the effect on our own kids. I can see how tracking could harm those in the lower ability/achievement levels, which is why I did not make a big fuss when my kids' elementary school eliminated the stand-alone pseudo GT class for reading/language arts. Interestingly, they kept the stand-alone pseudo GT class for math/science, probably because they could not even pretend that it would have been workable from the teachers' end. Anyhow, all the GT kids were equally distributed into three of the six 5th grade classes, which each have three differentiated "groups." Notwithstanding the "differentiated" instructions my kids supposedly received in their group during a small fraction of class-time, it was obvious to them (or so they volunteered this information to me) that the curriculum and expectations were inferior to prior years.
