Abstract
Ability-grouping has been studied extensively in relation to children's academic, but not emotional and behavioral outcomes. The sample comprised 7259 U.K. children (50% male) with data on between-class and within-class ability-grouping at age 7. Peer, emotional, hyperactivity, and conduct problems were measured at ages 7, 11, and 14 years. Children in low within-class ability groups showed more hyperactivity and emotional problems across the study period compared to non-grouped children, after adjustments for the different types of ability grouping and confounding. Additionally, children in the middle within-class ability groups showed more, and those in the top within-class groups less, hyperactivity compared to non-grouped children, after adjustment. Children in lower within-class groups should be monitored closely to ensure that their well-being is not compromised.
Highlights
Ability-grouping pupils within schools, referred to as attainment-grouping (Taylor et al, 2018) or tracking, has a long history in the United Kingdom and has attracted much research and debate (Ireson & Hallam, 1999)
In this study with a large sample of U.K. children from the general population, we explored the role of all different types of ability-grouping in primary school in the development of children's emotional and behavioral problems ( “problem behavior”) across the primary and secondary school years
In a further sensitivity analysis, we aimed to test whether the disadvantageous effect of being placed in a bottom within-class ability group on emotional problems and hyperactivity is an artifact of the poorer average academic performance of children in these groups compared to the ungrouped children who served as the reference group in the multilevel linear models (MLMs) presented above
Summary
Ability-grouping pupils within schools, referred to as attainment-grouping (Taylor et al, 2018) or tracking, has a long history in the United Kingdom and has attracted much research and debate (Ireson & Hallam, 1999). In primary schools in the United Kingdom, two main types of between-c lass ability-grouping are practiced: streaming and setting. Streamed pupils stay in a group of children with the similar ability for all lessons, while set pupils are placed in an ability group only for certain lessons (Ireson & Hallam, 2001). Within-class ability-grouping is a third type of ability-grouping and involves teachers organizing pupils into small groups by their skill levels. The three types of ability-grouping are not mutually exclusive, and children can be streamed, placed in sets, and allocated to within-class groups concurrently (Wilkinson et al, 2016)
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