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Evaluating Ability Grouping in Education

This document summarizes Josh Carlson's action research project on ability grouping. It includes background information on the issue from teacher perspectives. It also summarizes interviews with the district's assessment coordinator on using data and addressing struggling schools. The literature review covers 10 sources on ability grouping. Data shows lower math scores for 3rd and 4th grade over years and a significant difference between free/reduced price lunch students and others. Recommendations include discussing data with the principal and evaluating the 5th grade ability grouping model.

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8 views5 pages

Evaluating Ability Grouping in Education

This document summarizes Josh Carlson's action research project on ability grouping. It includes background information on the issue from teacher perspectives. It also summarizes interviews with the district's assessment coordinator on using data and addressing struggling schools. The literature review covers 10 sources on ability grouping. Data shows lower math scores for 3rd and 4th grade over years and a significant difference between free/reduced price lunch students and others. Recommendations include discussing data with the principal and evaluating the 5th grade ability grouping model.

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api-317351136
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Action

Research Project
Josh Carlson
BACKGROUND DATA WONK INTERVIEW

! Teachers feel that between-class ! I had the opportunity to interview


ability grouping is meeting the the Assessment Coordinator for
Mankato Area Public Schools.
academic needs of all students. ! I learned that if you do not make it
! Teachers are not willing to convenient to access data,
increase their workload by teachers will probably not use it.
! In order to be eective in this
integrating more of a exible/ position, you must have thick skin
within-class ability grouping in terms of how you handle
model. buildings that are not addressing
the key questions that arise from
! Their MCA math scores have their data.
been signicantly lower than the ! The piece that will always stick
3rd & 4th grade classes over the with me is that data only leads you
to the right questions, its not an
past several years. answer
Literature Review
1. Campbell, T. (2014). Stratied at seven: in-class ability grouping and the relative age eect. British Educational
Research Journal, 40(5), 749-771.
2. Hornby, G., & Witte, C. (2014). Ability Grouping in New Zealand High Schools: Are Practices Evidenced Based?
Preventing School Failure, 58(2), 90-95.
3. Hornby, G., Witte, C., & Mitchell, D. (2011). Policies and practices of ability grouping in New Zealand
intermediate schools. British Journal of Learning Support, 26(3), 92-95.
4. Ireson, J., & Hallam, S. (1999). Raising Standards: is ability grouping the answer? Oxford Review of Education,
25(3), 343-355.
5. Macintyre, H., & Ireson, J. (2002). Within-class Ability Grouping: placement of pupils in groups and self-concept.
British Educational Research Journal, 28(2), 249-263.
6. Matthews, M. S., Ritchotte, J. A., & McBee, M. T. (2013). Eects of schoolwide cluster grouping and within-class
ability grouping on elementary school students' academic achievement growth. High Ability Studies, 24(2),
81-97.
7. Missett, T. C., Brunner, M. M., Callahan, C. M., Moon, T. R., & Azano, A. P. (2014). Exploring Teacher Beliefs and
Use of Acceleration, Ability Grouping, and Formative Assessment. Journal for the Education of the Gifted,
37(3), 245-268.
8. Steenbergen-Hu, S., Makel, M. C., & Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2016). What One Hundred Years of Research Says
About the Eects of Ability Grouping and Acceleration on K-12 Students" Academic Achievement. Review of
Educational Research, 86(4), 849-899.
9. Wiliam, D., & Bartholomew, H. (2004). It's not which school but which set you're in that matters: the inuence
of ability grouping practices on student progress in mathematics. British Educational Research Journal, 30(2),
279-293.
10. Worthy, J. (2010). Only the Names Have Been Changed: Ability Grouping Revisited. Urban Rev, 42, 271-295.
t-test (FRP vs. Non-FRP) p = .0001
SD (FRP) = 13.66 SD (Non-FRP) = 10.64
Recommendations
! My next step in this process might be to have a conversation with the
building principal and make him aware of the data before he has the
conversation with the 5th grade team in regards to next years plan on
whether they will continue to implement an ability grouping model.
! Based on this data I feel I would like to complete two more research
tests on the same cohort of kids from when they were in 3rd and 4th
grade to see how the results compare.
! Looking through the lens of leadership, given the data I found, I would
recommend to this particular 5th grade team that they evaluate their
ability grouping model and see if they could come up with another
alternative form of grouping with their classrooms.

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