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A STATUS STUDY OF THE USE OF ABILITY GROUPING IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BETWEEN 1867 AND 1981
Abstract
Whether or not ability grouping practices should be used in American education has been an omnipresent controversy throughout the history of American education. The history of the use of ability grouping practices in American education was presented in this study by examination of literature published prior to 1981 and categorized within five major divisions: history, educator opinions, legal considerations, findings of experimental research, and previous efforts to synthesize professional judgments about ability grouping. From this status study and history of the use of ability grouping, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made for consideration by both educators and policy makers. The major conclusions of this study were: (1) Findings of educational research neither support nor refute, with any degree of definitiveness, the use of ability grouping. (2) For educational decision making, legal issues which may arise when ability grouping practices are used have taken precedence over educational issues to an increasing degree and it is likely that this trend will continue. (3) Classrooms with large numbers of low ability students usually include disproportionate numbers of children from minority groups, children from unfavorable socioeconomic backgrounds, or children who are members of cultural minorities and who are also from unfavorable socioeconomic backgrounds. (4) The vast majority of teachers do not wish to teach low ability students. (5) Since the 1960's, research studies about ability grouping have focused upon "how to group," with little or no attention to the issue of whether or not grouping practices should be used. (6) Ability grouping is a marginally legal practice which may be in conflict with the tenets of the Fourteenth Amendment unless care is taken to avoid conflict with Constitutional guarantees through due process procedures. (7) Ability grouping practices have achieved the status of "preferred belief" within the society and, thus, decisions about whether or not ability grouping practices should be used are likely to be less and less susceptible to data-based decision making. Whether or not ability grouping is used as a practice in American schools, the more critical issue may be whether or not educators, and the public, are willing to prize diversity among children and teach children to prize diversity in each other.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
MEREDITH, DONALD CHESTER, "A STATUS STUDY OF THE USE OF ABILITY GROUPING IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BETWEEN 1867 AND 1981" (1981). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8208368.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8208368