Yikes! I won’t even pretend to think that flexible ability grouping a good idea for any child. Separating children into ability groups to work on reading and math is being done in about 60% of our schools. What does that mean for your child? It means that your child is placed in a group (usually with a different teacher) based on your child’s skills in math and reading. Their skill level is determined by an assessment. The assessment is designed by the people who developed the curriculum. The assessment measures how well your child learns using that curriculum.

Flexible ability grouping is part of the curriculum but it has a new spin. Frequent testing. This allows a child to move up –oops –or down as they are assessed – frequently. But no one moves up. So basically we are now helping our children judge themselves and each other at 6 years old.  “I liked having my best friend Mary in my class but now she’s gone to the other class with the kids that can’t do math.”

Not possible? Kids don’t know? It won’t impact their lives? Bull. Sixty years ago I was placed in the top reading group (Robins) in first grade. You bet I remember that! And for one year, I thought I was better than everyone else who was in the slow reader groups (Turtles). For some reason, we didn’t do reading groups in other grades so it was a short lived superiority.

A lot of educators support ability grouping. It’s so efficient. It helps keep the teaching at the same level for everyone. All the children who do well on the assessment go into a group where they can be learn at a faster rate – cause they are smarter. Those children who do poorly on the assessment go into the lower groups – from not-too-bright to the really slow. (Yup that is sarcasm). And if you have a disability or for any reason can’t get assessed – well there are rooms for you.

What is wrong with that? Ethically, just about everything. A child is a whole person, not a score on an assessment. Separating them out by scores is rather scary.

Let’s look at expectations.

• Maybe you do have high skills in math and reading but maybe you get way too stressed having to compete with the “top” all the time. There’s a behavior problem in the making.
• Maybe you are placed in a “lower” group because you don’t test well. Maybe it’s not the skill but the curriculum that is baffling you. (Ask any parent who has had to help their child with math and watch their eyes glaze over).
• And what if you have a disability and you can’t do well at the test. Then your flexible ability group is with all the other kids with disabilities. Hmmmm - haven’t we really be trying to get rid of that? Well, that is just wrong isn’t it?

Flexible ability grouping supposes that if you teach a child with other children who are at the same level, you will have better outcomes for that child because you can teach everyone the same way. I wish that was true but it’s not. Children in those lower groups in math have many similarities and those similarities are causing them to fail in math. Typically, they are socioeconomically disadvantaged, female, have an immigrant background, speak a different language at home from the language of instruction, live in a single-parent family, attend school in a rural area, have not attended preschool. (By Lauren Camera, Education Reporter | Feb. 10, 2016).

So basically when you group kids by ability you are inherently grouping them by other reasons – like they are poor, they are girls, immigrants, limited English, single parent (poor), rural schools (poor), no preschool (poor). Or my favorite, they have a disability.

Let’s look at the fifth grade student who is a natural class leader with a passion for media presentations. Where is he when the class studies Edgar Allen Poe? He won’t be part of the class who is using technology to introduce Edgar Allen Poe, because he is off in a reading class with students who were assessed at reading comprehension at the second grade level. And he’s probably poor, a child of an immigrant, has limited English, comes from a single parent home, and didn’t go to preschool. Or again my favorite, he has a disability.

There are a lot reasons why flexible grouping works for the education system – and the schools that use it will tell you all of them. But I come from a special education background and I remember (1975) when children with disabilities were excused from school based on abilities. It scares me when we go down this path.

OK, you have had your say. You had your rant. What is the solution? Where and how do kids learn best?

Kids learn best when they are exposed to a good teacher who can teach each child at their level and use each child’s strengths. A teacher that knows which child is struggling at home, which child has trouble with new English concepts, which child hasn’t eaten over the weekend, which child has a great sense of humor, which child picks up new concepts quickly, which child is a natural helper, which child has amazing athletic abilities. A teacher that takes all those differences and creates a classroom culture where every child can learn and be appreciated.  It’s the teacher not the curriculum, not the flexible grouping. It’s really simple – it’s the teacher. And it will always be the teacher.