This article calls for school social workers to work in schools to reform school systems that have historically failed and are currently failing African American children. While the hope of education is to assist students to realize their potential, school systems across the nation are not reaching this goal. School social work has a duty, a…

Streaming (or ability grouping) for mathematics learning is a contentious issue. It can also be considered an issue of equity or social justice as some students may be adversely affected by the practice. Currently, the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) does not appear to have clear guidelines on streaming.…

This study used an ecobehavioral approach to investigate the conditional probability that English language learning (ELL) students would engage in academic tasks in urban middle school content area classrooms within different instructional grouping configurations. These configurations included whole class, small group, one-to-one, and individual…

The content standards reform movement and the accountability movement that have occurred over the past 10 to 20 years have received much attention among educational professionals and the general public. The federal government legislated accountability measures with the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2000. The Pennsylvania…

Given the efforts of comprehensive school reform to improve the quality of educational opportunities for students by providing a standards based curriculum, this analysis examines the issue of tracking and its implications regarding curriculum differentiation. Using data from middle schools involved with the comprehensive school reform model,…

In this analysis, the authors explore the relationship between the social context of high schools and school-to-school variation in tracking policies. The authors consider three explanations for the implementation of highly elaborated tracking systems: opportunity hoarding, status competition, and a technical-functional explanation. Building on…

This qualitative study examined the relationship between young deaf children's level of mathematics ability ('high" and "low," as defined by test score on the Test of Early Mathematics Ability-3) and opportunities available for the construction of early mathematics knowledge during a problem-solving task implemented by their parents. Findings…

For almost a century, schools have assigned students to various groups or classes based on their perceived academic ability. Referred to as Tracking, in the United States, and Streaming, in England, this organizational differentiation very often results in unequal access to knowledge and the differential treatment of students. Proponents of…

An across-groups (classrooms), multiple-baseline design was used to investigate the effects of an interdependent group-oriented contingency on the Accelerated Reader (AR) performance of fourth-grade students. A total of 32 students in three classes participated. Before the study began, an independent group-oriented reward program was being applied…

The practice of tracking and ability grouping--the division of students into separate tracks, classes, and groups for instruction based on their purported interests and abilities--has long been debated. Evidence from decades of research indicates that tracking magnifies inequality between high and low achievers without raising achievement overall,…

This paper examines the effect of content coverage on mathematics achievement and studies its relationship to eighth grade tracking. Previous analyses have shown tracking to be quite prevalent at eighth grade unlike much of the rest of the world. The U.S. practices both between- and within-school tracking, leading to very different content…

Expanded instructional time has become increasingly popular as a strategy to improve the academic outcomes of low-skilled students, particularly in the 9th grade. We evaluate the efficacy of a double-period algebra policy initiated in the Chicago Public Schools in 2003. This policy required all students with 8th-grade test scores below the…

This article presents findings from a comparative case study examining the implementation of the mathematics strand of the Key Stage 3 Strategy in two contrasting schools--one using setting and whole-class teaching, the other incorporating mixed-ability grouping and individualised learning. A number of "outcomes" of implementation are considered,…

By incorporating two theoretical frameworks this study examines how school characteristics shape first-grade reading ability-grouping practices, and how this, in turn, affects students' reading achievement. The author uses the data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and applies the propensity-score method to examine whether first-grade…

The big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) predicts that equally able students have lower academic self-concepts (ASCs) when attending schools where the average ability levels of classmates is high, and higher ASCs when attending schools where the school-average ability is low. BFLPE findings are remarkably robust, generalizing over a wide variety of…