"Nevermind" wrote in message
om...
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.

We aren't allowed to ability group anymore within a school. However, within
the district there are several optional schools which only take the high
performing students, and one (the one I teach at), which takes only the
lowest performing students, so I guess you could say that the district
ability groups by school, if the parents choose to take advantage of it.

This is at the elementary level-at high school, ability grouping is alive
and well, with multiple levels of the same class in anything required by the
state. A class which might be one semester or one year for high ability
students will be cut into two parts for lower ability students, and go at a
much slower pace, but with the same content.


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