How often are students organised into same and mixed ability groups? Publications
Publication Details
This paper describes how often teachers and school leaders group students by their ability between and within classes, and where ability grouping practices are most common.
Author(s): Emma Medina, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: August 2019
Summary
Using data from international research studies, international comparisons can give insight into how New Zealand’s practice compares in this respect. The relationship between ability grouping and academic and non-academic outcomes is also analysed.
Key Findings
- Ability is often used to group students between classes at the secondary level, but this is not as common at the primary level.
- Grouping students with others of similar ability within classes is used in primary reading and maths classrooms the most, and far more often than in most other countries.
- Younger and newer Year 5 maths teachers use mixed-ability groupings less often and same-ability groupings more often compared with older and more experienced teachers. In Year 9 maths classes, students in lower decile schools are more likely to have both mixed and same-ability grouping.
- Larger schools and schools with lower disciplinary climates use between-class grouping practices more often, most likely because there are enough students to split across classes in these larger schools; it may also be used as a behaviour management technique.
- No significant relationships were found between academic and non-academic outcomes across year levels and subjects except for Year 5 science. Students whose teachers used mixed-ability grouping for half the lessons or more scored nine points higher in science, after accounting for decile.
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