High-track/low-track studies almost invariably conclude that students gain from being in high-ability groups and lose from being in low-ability groups. Track/no-track studies find achievement effects approaching zero for high, average, and low achievers. Brewer, Rees, and Argys's own data provide little evidence for maintaining ability grouping.…

Inclusion's new challenge is to create schools that no longer rely on a particular text, activity, or teaching mode to support a given student's learning. The learning enterprise of reinvented inclusive schools will be a constant conversation involving students, educators, families, and others working to construct learning, document…

An Illinois high school modified its practice of sorting students into five ability areas (honors, accelerated, regular, modified, or basic) based on eighth-grade achievement test results and artificial caps and quotas. The school now bases placement on demonstrated proficiencies and offers services to help students advance to higher levels. (MLH)

Ability grouping's positive aspects (improved self-concept, achievement, and individualization) affect students in higher ability groups, whereas its negative aspects (impaired student mobility, instructional quality, self-concept, and achievement) affect students in lower ability groups. To make ability grouping work for all students requires…

Many schools fail to recognize slower learners' needs and to develop interdisciplinary and cooperative learning exercises allowing "crows" to soar educationally. Adopting the middle school philosophy and organizing a school into heterogeneous groups is insufficient. Every school must promote diversity in the classroom that enriches the…

A 1988 student survey suggests that honors classes more frequently resemble traditional tracking programs (based on IQ tests and prior performance) than do advanced placement (AP) classes. AP programs appear to be based on a meritocratic system; students who are adequately prepared and sufficiently motivated can accept the challenge and enroll.…

Commends journalist William Raspberry for urging less testing and sorting, more cooperation, and less competition in schools. Congress, under pressure to force schools to produce results and get rewards, should heed this columnist's advice. Although school boards are resisting an AASA measure (H.R. 3320) to reform local and state education…

High-ability students benefit academically from cooperative learning groups and are unimpeded by the presence of low- and medium-achieving peers. In such groups, high-ability students initially explain the material being studied and how to complete the assignment. Cognitive restructuring fosters a more thorough grasp of the material and its…

Research on educational options for gifted children show existing programs to be effective, but distribution of these programs varies widely across the United States. Standards should be elevated for all children. Educational interventions need to distinguish between the moderately gifted and the profoundly gifted children. (MMU)

Explores Dewey's ideas about education as a social experience occurring within community, and their implications for grouping. Suggests that the potential for undesirable outcomes for certain groups challenges educators to use grouping both effectively and ethically. (SK)

Discusses the success of Iowa City's (Iowa) New Horizons Band that consists of 55 senior adult beginners and former instrumentalists. Describes the organization of the band program, the senior's performance skills and commitment, and the ongoing challenges. Gives a selected listing of the music the band plays at concerts and other events. (CMK)

Rebuts Alfie Kohn's article "Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents are Undermining School Reform" in the April 1998 "Kappan." Kohn expects the author to pay a fortune for a home in an affluent community so his kids can get violence-prevention training and sing "Kumbaya" in a mainstreamed classroom. Earning the right…

Discusses the problems inherent to between-class ability grouping in middle schools. Reviews studies that question the practice of tracking and demonstrate this organizational technique to have little value. (JPB)

Both the special education and gifted education literature call for a differentiated curriculum to cater for the wide range of student differences in any classroom. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences was integrated with the revised Bloom's taxonomy to provide a planning tool for curriculum differentiation. Teachers' progress in using the…

In stark contrast to the recommendations of the current White Paper, Jo Boaler's recent research suggests that the radical progressive state school commitment to mixed ability teaching has, in the case of this landmark study, led to better results and better life-chances than its more traditional counterpart whose ability grouping practices…