An Examination of Ability Grouping for Reading Instruction

Background This investigation was sparked by research findings on secondary education showing school segregation to be closely associated with homogeneous grouping practices, such as tracking and between-class ability grouping. Research Design We conduct secondary analyses of national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). Objectives Using these data, we investigate the degree to which the racial and ethnic composition of schools is associated with use of ability grouping practices as early as kindergarten. We focus on within-class ability grouping for reading instruction because it is the most common form of homogeneous grouping for the early grades. Results and Conclusions We find that this form of grouping is practiced by a majority of kindergarten teachers and schools, although frequency of use is quite varied, and some teachers and schools use it only sporadically. The most intensive use of within-class ability grouping exists in schools that serve high proportions of minority students and in schools with high variability in students’ reading readiness. The association between student body composition and use of this instructional practice remains even after variability in student academic skills and other structural characteristics of schools are accounted for. Schools serving primarily minority students that use within-class ability grouping have higher average gains in reading achievement by the end of the school year than comparable schools that do not use this form of grouping. Use of this instructional practice is not associated with increases in average achievement gain scores for schools serving students of diverse or primarily White backgrounds. Our findings provide the foundation for further studies of the structural, cultural, and political features of schools associated with the use of ability grouping at the onset of schooling.

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Arithmetic achievement and instructional grouping

The Arithmetic Teacher ◽

10.5951/at.10.1.0012 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 12-17

Author(s):

O. L. Davis ◽

Neal H. Tracy

Keyword(s):

Elementary Schools ◽

Reading Instruction ◽

Grade Level ◽

Ability Grouping ◽

Ability Level ◽

Grade Levels ◽

Grouping Method ◽

Instructional Grouping ◽

Joplin Plan

In recent years, interest has increased in various ability grouping procedures. One widely discussed grouping method has been the “Joplin Plan,” developed in the Joplin, Missouri, elementary schools and originally used to group children for reading instruction by their ability level, disregarding their assigned grade level (Floyd, 1954). The plan apparently has been popular for reading instruction and has been extended to other curricular areas including arithmetic. One modification of the Joplin Plan in some schools is that children are grouped by ability within, but not across, grade levels.

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