Tracking and Ability Grouping in the Middle School: Ten Tentative Truths

Abstract

districts around the country lines appear to be being drawn for what may be a protracted struggle over whether and to what extent students will be organized for instruction on the basis of perceived ability or prior achievement. The opponents of rigid ability grouping in middle schools, often called tracking, argue against what they perceive to be the inequities and inadequacies of the education received by students in the lower tracks; they push for more heterogeneous classrooms, ones which reflect the social and intellectual diversity of the school's student population. They cite research to support their views. Defenders of ability grouping, as it currently exists in many schools, are most frequently advocates for students who are perceived to be exceptionally able, academically. Advocates for these gifted and talented students argue that heterogeneous classrooms prohibit such students from attaining the degree of educational excellence that their ability and their motivation make potentially possible; they cite research to support their views. Although National Middle School Association and many similar groups have gone on record in oppositition to rigid grouping, middle school teachers and administrators also