Abstract
This article discusses two conceptual formulations of the relationship between students' ascribed and achieved characteristics and their assignment to ability groups for instruction in school. The first formulation is a sophisticated specification of the commonly used educational rationale for within-class ability grouping. It is based on the work of Barr and Dreeben (1983) as elaborated in their book How Schools Work. The second is a sociological model that predicts an independent and separate role of classroom social organization in classroom processes and learning because of the constraints on implementing the educational theory behind ability grouping. This formulation derives from the research program of the authors. The theoretical propositions of the two conceptual models are compared and contrasted and they are subjected to preliminary empirical testing using two data sets on ability groups.
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