Grouping by ability in classrooms is back in fashion. Is this good for kids?

In today’s New York Times, Vivian Yee reports on the supposed reemergence of elementary school ability tracking, in which teachers split students into smaller groups of advanced, regular, or slow learners, in order to better target lessons to children’s individual needs, Salon.com reports. Grouping fell out of favor in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was stigmatized because of its relationship to high school-level “tracking,” the practice of assigning students at different academic levels to totally different classrooms or curricular programs, such as vocational or college-prep…

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