Ability grouping

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

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

My daughter is only in kindergarten and she goes to a DoD school. I'm not
sure about this but I know they have something where 1st and 2nd grade is
combined. It works out well cos if the younger kids have questions they can
ask the older kids, rather than wait on a busy teacher to help them. I'm
drawing a complete blank on what it's called.

--
Sophie -
TTC #4

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:52:43 -0500, "Sophie"
wrote:

My daughter is only in kindergarten and she goes to a DoD school. I'm not
sure about this but I know they have something where 1st and 2nd grade is
combined. It works out well cos if the younger kids have questions they can
ask the older kids, rather than wait on a busy teacher to help them. I'm
drawing a complete blank on what it's called.

My children's classes were team taught - the classes were 1st-2nd
combinations, 3rd-4th combinations and 4th -5th combinations, but
that did not mean that they had two teachers in a single classroom
though.

They had homeroom with one teacher and they switched teachers for
different subjects so one teacher taught language arts/social studies
and the other taught math/science and then they also had special
teachers for music, art and gym.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

wrote:

I know this will be a very unscientific survey, but I'm curious about
how common Ericka's school's grouping system (see below) is these days.

In the Seattle school system, unless you are in one of the gifted programs,
there is little in the way of grouping. Reading is generally individualized to
some extent -- in my kids' first grade class, the children were all working
through different boxes, you were on green box or red box or black box or
whatever. One of my daughters is in a 4/5 split class and is often in a
literature circle with older kids (depending on which book she chooses to read
-- the specific circles are not assigned as far as I know). There doesn't seem
to be any formal system at all for dealing with kids who are ahead in math but
not in the gifted programs, though I have heard of occasional accommodations
for a child who was WAY WAY ahead (more than two years).

I guess the above wasn't totally clear -- the gifted programs group kids by
broad ability levels in self-contained classrooms, but within those groups they
are taught at essentially one level (supposedly one year ahead of standards for
the lower-level program, and two years ahead for the upper-level).

I have occasionally heard of a particular teacher making an effort to compact
and differentiate the curriculum (see Susan Winebrenner's excellent book
_Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom_ for an overview of how this
works), but it certainly is not the usual procedure as far as I can see.

--Helen

"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

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.

Oops, I forgot to say that in my answer about Seattle schools I was talking
about elementary school only. I think there are different math tracks in middle
school, but it's whole classes, not ability groups. And of course in high
school there is the chance to take AP courses or go to the IB school, but
again, no individual ability grouping, all at class-level.

--Helen

In article ,
says...

We aren't allowed to ability group anymore within a school.

A friend of our's, living in Connecticut, has a child who has quite a
talent for math (he's been doing Algebra at home with his mother) and
he's bored with his classroom math. His parents requested from the
teacher and the principal to accelerate his math program. They were
flatly refused, being told that it's mandated by the state that every
child receive an identical education until grade six, unless they are
specifically categorized as learning disabled.

The upshot was, they asked me for some homeschooling math resources,
then pulled him out of the public school and put him in private
school. To their surprise, they found several of the boy's friends
who had disappeared from the school that year.

Michelle
Flutist

--
In my heart. By my side.
Never apart. AP with Pride!
Katrina Marie (10/19/96)
Xander Ryan (09/22/98 - 02/23/99)
Gareth Xander (07/17/00) Zachary Mitchell
Theona Alexis (06/03/03) (01/12/94, fostered 09/05/01 - 07/23/03)

That's interesting, since my nephew in Fairfield, CT public schools is
profoundly gifted, and the district is paying for a teacher to come
and work with him on advanced math. It's a pull out program. They
still haven't quite solved the English/Language Arts piece, since it
involves driving him over to the high school.
He's had a great experience, and they have accomodated him in ways I
would not have expected.

Here in our urban district in Oakland there is no official ability
grouping but in Middle school there is a fairly obvious one... Kids
can take Algebra in 7th grade, but only if they are given permission
and there appear to be two tracks for "Core" social science/language
arts

In the k-5 schools, there are certainly lit circles where the teachers
pick the students and the book. It's hard for strong boy readers like
my kid, since he ends up in circles with mostly girls.



We aren't allowed to ability group anymore within a school.

A friend of our's, living in Connecticut, has a child who has quite a
talent for math (he's been doing Algebra at home with his mother) and
he's bored with his classroom math. His parents requested from the
teacher and the principal to accelerate his math program. They were
flatly refused, being told that it's mandated by the state that every
child receive an identical education until grade six, unless they are
specifically categorized as learning disabled.

The upshot was, they asked me for some homeschooling math resources,
then pulled him out of the public school and put him in private
school. To their surprise, they found several of the boy's friends
who had disappeared from the school that year.

Michelle
Flutist

In article ,
says...
That's interesting, since my nephew in Fairfield, CT public schools is
profoundly gifted, and the district is paying for a teacher to come
and work with him on advanced math. It's a pull out program. They
still haven't quite solved the English/Language Arts piece, since it
involves driving him over to the high school.
He's had a great experience, and they have accomodated him in ways I
would not have expected.

MY suspicion is administrators often make up these sorts of things,
"It's a state law that..." either out of true ignorance, or because
they don't WANT to do the extra work.

Michelle
Flutist

--
In my heart. By my side.
Never apart. AP with Pride!
Katrina Marie (10/19/96)
Xander Ryan (09/22/98 - 02/23/99)
Gareth Xander (07/17/00) Zachary Mitchell
Theona Alexis (06/03/03) (01/12/94, fostered 09/05/01 - 07/23/03)