There are two schools of thought concerning grouping in education and I know that this is an issue that causes conflict in school buildings, especially at the middle school level.
There is some research that supports heterogeneous grouping becuase there are concerns about the quality of teaching. The concerns are that the classrooms with lover ability students sometimes are led by marginal teachers.
And there is also much research that supports homogeneous grouping in mathematics when teaching is of a high quaility in both types of classrooms. This type of grouping lets our students move at their own skill level, and helps the United States compete with other nations who are truly ahead in math education.
Where can we find a consensus in this issue? How can we make good decisions for all stakeholders? Will these decisions hold back those who are truly gifted in mathematics? Are their rights as important as those of school districts who wish to maintain a philosophy? Are we not really inclusing the rights of those with lesser math abilities? Why can'g grouping be more flexible?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this issue.
D. K. Perry
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I'm with you on the flexible grouping. Why not have homogeneous grouping for instruction but have heterogeneous grouping to work on problem solving. That way the lower performing students can learn by example and the higher performing can reinforce what they learned by teacher others.
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