Ability grouping helps top students, and doesn't hurt weak students

Placing all students in the same class is supposed to help low achievers aim higher without hurting high achievers, in theory Teachers are told to "differentiate" instruction to meet the needs of students at very different levels.

But does it actually work that way?

"Young Sheldon" started high school when he was nine, but was still way ahead in math.

Strong students learn less math in mixed classes, concludes a new Education Endowment Foundation study of English middle schools, reports Richard Adams in The Guardian. Weaker students, as judged by prior math achievement, do about the same whether they're in mixed classes or lower-track classes, University College London (UCL) researchers found. Furthermore, students placed in lower-track classes were more confident of their math abilities than those in mixed classes.

The "big and important" results "support achievement grouping in maths," said John Jerrim, a UCL professor who has studied mixed-ability classes but wasn't part of the study, Adams reports. Jerrim added, “It wasn’t long ago that some educational researchers in the UK and Ireland were calling ability grouping ‘symbolic violence’."

High achievers grouped by prior achievement made two months more progress on average than similar students in mixed classes, the study found.

One reason tracking is controversial is that the weaker students tend to get the weaker (or newer) teachers. UCL researchers warned that schools should assign capable teachers to all levels of students. As in the U.S., English schools often have trouble recruiting qualified math teachers.

Teaching mixed classrooms is increasingly difficult, write Scott J. Peters and Jonathan Plucker. "The typical American classroom includes students that span three to seven grade levels of achievement mastery."

On balance, "we find that large-scale studies and meta-analyses of grouping show evidence of positive effects for high-performing students and little downside (and often upside) for lower-performing students."

Ability (or achievement) grouping is most common for middle-school math, but it can be used to teach young readers.

Grouping students by reading level helps all students, writes Jessica Berg, who coaches teachers at a Rockford, Illinois elementary school. Her schools groups K-2 students by reading skills, regardless of their age or grade level.

Teachers don't have to "differentiate," or guess at what their reading group needs to learn, she writes. Students are "more confident, more engaged, and more successful."

More students test as "proficient" readers, and "at-risk" numbers are way down.

I sat in mixed classrooms -- often reading covertly -- until high school, when I was in Level 1 clases. I loved tracking.