Can You "Work Your Way Up"? Examining the Relationship Between Ability Grouping and Student Learning Behaviors

• In Event: 14.040 - How Local Actors Make Sense of Tracking/Competing Policy Initiatives

Abstract

Using data from the ECLS-K, this paper examines the iterative process of ability grouping for reading instruction as students move through the early primary grades. Initial findings indicate that student learning behaviors are both a predictor of group assignments and an outcome of their experiences in different kinds of groups. Students that are assigned to lower groups have the opportunity to advance into higher groups through both increased achievement and demonstrations of positive learning behaviors. Students that move up are on average still behind their peers at the end of one year, but can narrow the disparity over time. Curiously, students in lower ability groups have a higher return on investment of learning behaviors than students in higher groups.

Author

• Marshall Jean, University of Chicago