Sorting Kids At School: The Return Of Ability Grouping

Countless controversy over ability grouping has been around in communities all over the world, for over the three decades. Especially, there has been a serious issues involving segregation and inequity with the mask of ability grouping on the surface in the United States, such as race and social status. In the news article, “Sorting kids at school: the return of ability grouping,” the reporter Celia R. Baker (2013) quotes the University of South Carolina law professor, Derek Black, who mentions that “tracking and grouping provided a convenient excuse to separate students within schools, ostensibly by ability” in the mid-20th century United States and “even when teachers have the best intentions, perceptions about student ability are not objective” (). …show more content…
Due to variety of students’ characteristics, personalities, backgrounds, ability areas, and other reasons, grouping students has a vast amount of unexpectedness and exceptions, and placing students’ variety of abilities on a single scale is improper. Moreover, the outcome of the ability grouping is mediated by teacher’s teaching style and perspectives on students. Placing an ability grouping system, therefore, is risky.
Education for students should be more flexible than simply placing them into ability groups. Rather than restricting their knowledge spaces, we must allow students to learn with curiosity and explore broader areas of subjects. Making the classroom into a mood in which students learn by helping each other will bring a better effect both on academic performance and socializing than taking students apart from each