In the January 19th issue of Ed Week, there is an article about a Detroit school's pilot program that allows 7th & 8th grade teachers to regroup their students frequently in different math & language classes based on how they're performing. Basically, the students are grouped by their skill levels and their performance. If a student is breezing through a class, s/he could get moved to a harder level.
This creates a crossroads in my mind between two things I believe. First, I think that schools (from the beginning) should not group kids by age but should allow them to move around like this to address and tap into their different skill levels. For instance, a 1st grader might be in one level of math class but then be in a much higher level of reading class. The individual student would be able to progress at the pace exactly right for him/her, and the teacher would have less trouble figuring out how to meet the needs of different levels at the same time.
However, the interceptor thought here is that the group learns better with a variety of different people who have varying levels with diverse perspectives. This would create classes with less diversity (of all kinds) and less opportunity to learn as a group. Plus, it seems like it might set up a system that segregates students and highlights issues like poverty, race, etc.
The conflict becomes about objective. Is the goal educating better individual students or is it about creating better members of society. I will be interested to follow this school to see what the outcome is for the students and if there are any unintended consequences that arise.
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