Tracking is a predominant method used by American public schools to instruct children of multiple abilities. Tracking has been highly criticized by scholars, however, for its detrimental effects on children's education. This paper investigates practitioners' rationale for using tracking and explores the effects of tracking in the classroom and on…

A study of 786 fourth-grade students (229 gifted and 557 nongifted) assessed the effects of both heterogeneous and homogeneous grouping in cooperative learning settings on the performance of gifted and nongifted students. Results found that gifted fourth-grade students experienced no adverse effects as a result of interacting with nongifted…