Despite research highlighting the negative impact of ability grouping on student outcomes in mathematics, the practice seems entrenched in New Zealand schools. The Ministry of Education launched a professional development initiative with the aim that mathematics lead teachers would drive change towards teaching in mixed-ability groups using a…

Grouping students into separate classes according to their 'ability' is an inequitable practice that does not, overall, improve academic outcomes. Research has continued to show that class ability grouping widens the educational gap between students from disadvantaged and privileged backgrounds. PISA data analysis suggests that class ability…

This study estimates the effect of between-class ability grouping on Chilean secondary students' academic achievement. We rely on a structural feature of the school system: A considerable number of students who complete primary school must change schools to start their secondary education. Cardinality matching was performed to account for…

This study investigated potential inequalities in a bilingual education program where secondary school students are streamed into two strands with different degrees of exposure to the target language based on their proficiency: high exposure (HE) and low exposure (LE). Drawing on classroom registers (Christie, 2005), appraisal theory (Martin &…

This paper explores the peer relationship experiences of 23 primary-school children who had been designated as "lower-attaining". It is written against the backdrop of the mental health crisis among young people in Britain. Using John Macmurray's principles of equality and freedom as underpinning positive personal relationships, it…

Extant research has observed that educational expectations are malleable and adjust in response to educational inputs such as the position in a stratified level of education. Examining two distinct forms of curricular differentiation introduced in the comprehensive Spanish educational system (low-ability grouping programmes), I study whether two…

Kindergarten readiness assessments are commonly used in schools nationwide. Prior work shows that the use of such assessments for class placement decisions has increased in recent years. This article uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of 2011 to explore whether the use of readiness assessments for such purpose predicts differential…

Inclusion is positioned at the forefront of global educational reform. The study reported focused on a national Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme for Inclusive Physical Education (IPE) in England. The research was designed to critically explore how CPD providers (i.e. tutors) variously conceptualised and practiced inclusion in…

Ability grouping provides an advanced learning environment for gifted students, possibly buffering them from common long-term increases in academic boredom. We present a 3.5-year longitudinal investigation, spanning four waves of measurement, featuring secondary school students (Grades 5 through 8) from five different German schools with full-time…

There are concerns that ability tracking at a young age increases unequal opportunities for children of different socioeconomic background to develop their potential. To disentangle family influence and potential ability, we applied moderation models to twin data on secondary educational track level from the Netherlands Twin Register (N = 8847).…

Compliance to government-prescribed national 'school-readiness' performance measures, particularly in early numeracy and literacy, readies and governs early years children for primary schools' test-based culture. Performance measures, such as the Early Learning Goals and the Phonics Screening Check, govern and steer early years teachers towards…

Evaluations of professional development programmes often seek to represent definitive outcomes, with phenomena posited as discrete, bounded and independent entities, and researchers positioned as external actors. An alternative is to understand the complexity of these relationships as entanglements by applying Baradian concepts. The value of this…

The article reports data from an aspect of the study which aimed to study the nature of children's interactions and their perceptions of ability-based groups in a primary classroom in England. Previous studies on ability-based group have mainly used quantitative research designs to study children's interactions and appeared to award less…

Ability grouping of students into separate classes within a school can be called 'between-class ability grouping'. This practice has persisted in Australia despite evidence that it is socially inequitable and does not improve academic outcomes. A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature about between-class ability grouping in Australia from…

The advantages and disadvantages of ability grouping for student achievement are strongly contested, with studies presenting different results. However, much of this research has focused on class-level or subject-level ability grouping. Relatively less research has focused on school-level ability grouping. More importantly, the role of teacher…