"Branching Off": A Case Study of Ability Grouping Among Black Students

• In Event: Tracking Through the Life Course of Education

Abstract

Theoretical Background
Positive academic self-concept and perceived support and acceptance by teachers and peers correlate positively with students’ academic outcomes (Bottiani, Bradshaw, & Mendelson, 2016; Guay, Marsh, & Boivin, 2003; Wentzel & Caldwell, 1997). Black students, however, tend to report less confidence in their academic abilities and are less likely to feel supported by their schooling environment than White students (Cokley, McClain, Jones, & Johnson, 2012; Howard, 2010). Importantly, academic self-concept and teacher support are often linked with school ability-groupings; teachers have been found to display higher expectations and provide more encouragement to students deemed gifted (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1992; Tyson, 2011). Meanwhile, these gifted students at times report higher confidence in their academic abilities (Chmielewski, Dumont, & Trautwein, 2013). Black students, however, are systematically underrepresented in programs for gifted students (Kellogg, 2016; Oakes, 2005; Tyson, 2011), likely contributing to feelings of academic incapability and lack of within-school social supports.

Objectives
By comparing the experiences of students within a single small school district, this project examines the following question: How does the within-school segregation of Black students by ability grouping affect Black students’ academic motivation; self-concept; and attitudes toward their schooling environment, in terms of their perceptions of peer and staff support and acceptance?

Methods
One-on-one participant interviews were conducted for phenomenological analysis, and primary documents were referenced for contextual information. This district ability-groups students beginning in grade 3, and participants were selected to represent perspectives of students in or outside of the district’s Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) program.

Findings
Interviews indicated that non-AIG students were less motivated to participate in advanced classes in high school, but not necessarily less engaged in their studies. Furthermore, students often associated intelligence with their course placement as expected, which seemed to motivate the AIG students, but did not seem to greatly discourage the non-AIG students.
Students displayed contrasting beliefs about Black underachievement and discussed “branching off” from one another upon beginning the AIG program. This separation came in the form of physically separated classrooms and in students’ understanding of other Black students and of the workings of the school system. AIG students lamented the seemingly disengaged attitudes of non-AIG Black students, believed lack of ambition was responsible for these students’ standard-course placement, and reported few same-race friendships. Meanwhile, inconsistent with the AIG students’ perceptions, non-AIG students described wanting to do well in school and complete college, as did the AIG students. Non-AIG students reported more frequently than their AIG peers that teachers did not support them, and were more likely to cite sociopolitical causes of Black underachievement.

Significance
This study provides a rare analysis of the experiences of Black students who, though they attend the same schools, complete their K-12 education with disparate outcomes as a result of ability grouping. Educators and scholars wishing to promote educational equity or facilitate healthy racial and academic identity development should note the experiences of this study’s participants in order to evaluate the risks of even well-intended grouping practices and to begin advocating for change.

Author

• Alecia Smith, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill