Reply to Why is there no levelling for middle school English/ELA (is there a backstory?), and is that possible to change?

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Reply to "Why is there no levelling for middle school English/ELA (is there a backstory?), and is that possible to change?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The reason for heterogeneous grouping is so that all students get exposed to higher level thinking and tasks that were happening only in the Honors classes. The model is similar to elementary with multiple skill levels in one class. At the middle school level this can work well for English, Science, and World Studies when ~25% of kids are advanced, 50% of kids are grade level, and no more than 25% are behind. Strategic grouping and well structured assignments can keep the whole class moving forward with enough engaged & independent learners, and the teacher can effectively help a small number of students needing more support.

The problem really comes in when that mix of students gets to be more than 1/3 of the class. Things just grind down - it’s hard to keep pace, more % absent, fewer kids ready to learn. While it’s easy to say when this happens, we should split into two levels, but how do you draw the line? Student abilities and readiness for any given course fall on a bell curve. Parents, teachers, and administrators will all disagree on where to draw the line. Do we only separate the top 25% and really let them accelerate, leaving enough capable kids in the other group so there is a critical mass to still engage in rich content, although at a slower pace? Or do we separate the bottom 25% into remedial classes, which has shown us over decades to simply relegate that group of kid to never catching up or being exposed to higher level thinking.

This doesn’t have an easy solution.

[/quote]

I really appreciate this comment. It’s probably true that more than the top say 25% can handle advanced content, but the bottom 1/3 or so can’t. Where and how to separate out is a really tricky question.[/quote]

It’s not really.  You pick a point to separate and then move forward and stop listening to parents who are gaming the system.  If your kid is oh so special their performance or other behaviors will show that. This doesn’t mean that Teachers will stop doing differentiation as needed to address the fact that kids are still across ranges. It means they will   slow things down or keep them in the normal pace so kids can gain  understanding.  It means they will throw in challenges occasionally to see how students perform and take note of those on the cusp of being higher or who are performing higher than expected. It means that aa groups /classes abilities get better teachers will move things along quicker or give them more depth and challenge.  Heck they might even recommend some additional reading outside of school as optional to prepare to be in the higher level next year.

The challenge is that staff and students and families have to not view remedial or on-level as incapable of more and greater.  It’s a current point that’s it.  Students aren’t going to leap forward without good foundation and support. [/quote]

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