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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Breaking out of the Low Group
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was surprised to read on an earlier thread a parent lamenting that ability grouping doesn’t happen anymore. It doesn’t? Most elementary schools I visit are ability-grouping up a storm for reading and math. I often see a high group, a medium group and a low group.
In middle school, I’ve seen a case where bright kids had their own language arts and math class and I assume there were also classes for the low groups, leaving the middle kids to hang together somewhere else. In this school, all kids were put together for science and social studies. The girl I was shadowing was a genius, so the science and social studies classes were not remotely challenging for her. She often served as an assistant to the teacher, something I know fries parents but did not seem to bother her.
Principals have told me that grouping kids by ability is okay (read: way different from tracking) as long as kids are able to move up into a higher group.
So I was surprised recently when my friend who lives in north Fulton relayed a concern to me. She was told that once a child is put into a math group in first grade that is his group forever. What?!?! I told her that cannot be the case. But I did tell her it would be in the child’s best interest to be placed in the right group to start, because getting into a higher group once the school year gets going could prove sticky.
Parents, teachers: Do you see ability grouping in schools? Do kids seem appropriately placed? Do kids and parents whose kids are in the low group know that the goal is to move up? Do teachers encourage students in the low group to move up? Is all this ability-grouping talk just code for tracking? Would families flee public schools en masse if ability grouping did not happen?
Sorry, it’s a lot of questions. It’s a big topic!
