In article ,
(Nevermind) wrote:

I know this will be a very unscientific survey, but I'm curious about
how common Erika's school's grouping system (see below) is these days.
Our school doesn't officially do ability grouping -- there is *no*
expectation that the work the kids're doing in reading or math will be
pegged to their individual ability at all, only to their age. It's
one-size-fits-all unless the teacher wants to differentiate on her
own.

How about your kids' elementary schools?

I had understood that ability grouping had become rare in U.S.
elementary schools, but if I'm wrong about that, then our school
district's system is much more vulnerable to criticism and parental
agitation for change.

Nevermind wrote:

Wow -- is ability grouping common in the UK? If I understand
correctly, it has been all but wiped out of public schools in the
U.S.
It sounds like wonderful common sense to me.

It sure isn't wiped out in the public schools
here. In my sons' school they ability group for math
and reading in every grade past kindergarten (except
it seems that they don't in the center based GT program,
which I suppose makes sense). They have as many groups
as they have teachers for that grade. So, this year
there are something like six first grade teachers, so
they have seven reading groups (each teacher has one,
plus there's a reading specialist) and six math groups.
The groups are relatively fluid, so children who need
to move up or down accordingly. Seems to work like a
charm.

Best wishes,
Ericka


My kids have been in 4 different elementary schools, and all of them did
at least some ability groupings for reading in the early years. Some
had ability groupings in math, but most did not.

Given that kids enter school with abilities that range from reading
fluently to barely recognizing letters, I don't see how they could NOT
do at least some ability grouping for reading. OTOH, they also enter
with all kinds of abilities (both natural and taught) in math, and most
don't do it there, leaving kids like my son bored to distraction, so I
guess they COULD have everyone in the same reading groups, too.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care