Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Research Against Ability Grouping?

I went to an Open House at a school this morning and the principal told the attendees that the school only does ability groupings at the middle-school level. From what I heard, she said they used to do them for the primary school years, but that "all the research" says that young kids do fine when ability grouped for a while but that those children who were ability grouped early on have issues once they get to 5th/6th grade. I didn't hear her provide any specifics on what type of issues.

So, I plan to set up an appointment to talk with her to see how/whether they might be able to accommodate DS. I'm also going to ask her if she can point me to this research against ability grouping at a young age. Is anyone here familiar with any research against ability grouping?

Thanks!

The book I've heard referred to repeatedly as the source for this is Keeping Track by Jeannie Oakes; I finally got around to reading it because so many teachers and administrators had cited it as "proof" that ability grouping is bad for kids. It's nearly two decades old now, but it was influential in encouraging schools to de-track (i.e. not group kids by perceived ability). I had mixed feelings about it: her argument seems more political than educational, frankly, and doesn't deal much with gifted kids. More recently the refined version I've heard is that ability-grouping is a bad idea...except for gifted children, who need some time with ability-level-peers.

Thanks, WCMom. I'll try to get my hands on that book before I meet with the principal.

You might want to bring evidence in favor of ability grouping (A Nation Deceived, etc.). You could indicate that the Oakes book is out of date as part of your argument in favor of ability grouping.

Val

Social Justice arguments are designed to cripple high achievers no matter their origins.

I've never read anything against it that wasn't strictly political in nature.

Here's an interesting article I came across last week.
http://austega.com/gifted/articles/Rogers_researchsynthesis.htm

It's by Karen Rogers, the author of "Re-Forming Gifted Education." She looks at the "effectiveness" of a whole variety of GT-Ed provisions. Cluster & pull-out grouping come out near the top.

Sounds like your principal needs to spend some quality time with current articles on the subject.

Unfortunatly, what passes for 'research' against ability grouping is highly political. I'm wondering if the 'issue' that a high ability grouped kid would face in 5/6th grade is that they run out of curriculum.

I asked my brother about subject acceleration that he got in Math in elementary school:
In first grade I went to 2nd.
In 2nd grade I went to 3rd.
In 3rd grade I went to 4th.
In 4th grade I went to 5th.
In 5th grade there was no place to go, so I did 5th again.

((shudder))
Grinity

Good! I would strongly encourage you to do this.


I would strongly encourage to NOT do this. If you want to help 'all the children' do it at a school your child doesn't attend, or talk to your Representatives, or write letters to the editor. Keep your focus on your own child, especially now when you are just starting your relationship with the school. First things first. Engaging in a theoretical discussion doesn't further your chiild's education. Instead you can play the 'social and emotional needs card' and say something like: 'I've observed in other settings that my child remains shy and withdrawn/acts out if there are not a handful of other kids in the room of similar academic ability. Is there anyway you can put her in a classroom with other similar kids? Thanks'

You have to speak the language that your listener can hear.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Thanks for the input! I'll likely arm myself with info by reading (or re-reading) the current literature re: ability grouping for the gifted and the older stuff against it. DH thinks we should just walk away from this school because there were too many red flags. I guess I'm still hopeful that if I bang my head on the wall in just the right way, a secret door may actually open.

I wonder if the Principal is confusing tracking w/ ability grouping. The latest research on ability group indicates it does work. I've not seen any research that focuses on how the kids are performing as opposed to politics that indicates ability grouping doesn't work. If you had 6 classrooms and 6 Hispanic kids learning English, would they split them up 1 to each class to make it fair to the teacher? I would hope they would group them somehow so they have someone who speaks their language in their class. But that's what they do to gifted kids. We have about 7 K classes. They are tested for reading ability just before school starts. Do they use that info to group kids together so they can have a reading group? Nope, they use it to spread the kids out so it's fair to the teacher - at least that's what they do at my son's school. That ensured that he would have no one at his reading level to be a in a group which meant he got no reading instruction.

The principal may be using something like this:
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-927/grouping.htm

It's pretty old (1986 research).