What is
Ability Grouping
Ability grouping is the practice of grouping learners together based on their strengths and talents within a learning environment. Advocates of ability grouping argue that the practice allows educators to customize the pace of instructional content to align better with students’ needs and, therefore improving student achievement. Educators can also provide repetition and reinforcement as necessary for lower-achieving students and an advanced level of instruction to higher achievers.
Ability grouping refers to sorting students into levels based on their ability or achievement in the classroom. Opponents of this practice argue that ability grouping not only fails to benefit any student, but it also disproportionately sorts poor and minority students into lower tracks where they receive a lesser quality of instruction than other groups.