Chapter 6: Race Effects on Ability Group Outcomes

Assigning students to ability groups for instruction is a common practice in most middle and secondary schools in the United States. Ability grouping is seen as an efficient and effective method to instruct a large population of students. The efficiency of ability grouping stems from the fact that it provides a fairly straightforward basis on which to assign students to classes. Its effectiveness results from allowing teachers to gear instruction to the ability level of their students and to utilize pedagogical techniques appropriate to the students’ level of understanding. For these reasons, many, if not most, teachers prefer instructing students in ability-grouped classes rather than in heterogeneously grouped classes.