Reply to Why the aversion to grouping kids based on ability rather than age? Thoughts from down under.

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[quote=Anonymous]And it's usually these kids who run the gangs later on.

My MIL is a reading teacher in a middle school and it pains her to see both the struggling special needs students as well as bored, advanced kids who she can't devote enough time to challenge. She has kids who read at both a third grade level and at a college aged level in the same class and she's supposed to develop a curriculum for all of them. It's a joke and she knows it, and it makes her sad that she can't do anything about it.

I grew up in a 'tracked' ES, MS, and HS. Plenty of kids moved up from the 'slow' track to the middle or high track based on their progress.  But we all weren't expected to all go to college, either. We lived in a rural town and only 10-20% of HS grads went to college. Most of the college-ambitious kids were in the same classes; there were plenty of HS seniors with plans that did not include furthering their education.  This was not looked down upon.  I don't get why that is so wrong nowadays.

All the 'combination' approach accomplishes is to frustrate teachers, make the 'stupid' kids feel dumb, and make the 'smart' kids bored/frustrated/elitist while employing a 'one size fits all' approach that we all know is only consistent with 'teaching for the test'.[/quote]

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