[Oz-gifted] Fw: Ability Grouping

[Kristy]

Well I had my chat with the school deputy. The very first thing he threw at 
me was social issues! I almost said typical but refrained. I did explain to 
him that in the case of gifted kids there is plenty of research that says 
socially they cope rather well with acceleration so could we please not use 
that as the first excuse for not considering ability grouping. I am SO sick 
of them using 'social issues' to hold kids back.

He basically agreed that ability grouping would be good. He also gave me 
many reasons why it wouldnt work in the school. Incidentally I didnt go to 
him to get it put into the school only to get some feedback on it.

Reasons why not

*Behavioural- He did admit it was a generalisation but said there are a lot 
of behaviour problems in the lowest ability kids. I mentioned that we also 
get that in the highest ability kids if they are not stimulated correctly. 
He said the difference is the gifted kids are not usually violent. He also 
didnt feel that the altered education would help the kids to settle at all. 
Even when I pointed out that the kids would be learning at their level which 
would allow them to have successes and to shine amongst ability peers which 
should help with boredom and self esteem issues. He just felt that grouping 
them together would encourage all the 'bad eggs' to play off each other.

*Staffing constraints- His other major issue. He doesnt have the staff to do 
it. This I could understand but at the same time I couldnt. Ability grouping 
doesnt necessarily mean any difference in the numbers in classes, just that 
the classes are grouped a little differently. Right now the school mixes 
their classes as much as possible.Gifted kids spread out, behavioural 
problems or personality problems spread out. I pointed out that by doing 
this the gifted kids do not have the chance to get together with other 
ability peers, he agreed.

One of the other issues was the number of kids in each ability group. He 
said in the high ability group in my sons year there would be 5 kids and 
then the difference of ability in that class would be the same as the 
differences in a normal class. I pointed out that with ability grouping it 
would still be the higher end kids in the class even if the ability range 
was quite large. He didnt see a difference between that and normal classes. 
He also said there are a high number of kids on the lower level. He was 
using the PEAC results as a measure and apparantly there is a larger number 
of kids on the lower levels. I asked if he felt that putting them in ability 
groups would help to bring some of those kids up to the middle range faster 
and he didnt agree, said normal classes would do that fine.

He made a large point of saying I had a vested interest in this as it would 
benefit my kids....I thought that was a 'well D'uh' moment! BUt I pointed 
out that I thought the system would be good for all kids. Would give those 
at the lower end a chance to shine and not be bored pretending to do work 
that is too hard, would give the mid range kids a chance to shine and would 
give the high end kids some challenges.HE didnt agree that it would be 
easier for teachers to just program for one ability group instead of the 
whole range. Used that horrid 'open ended' learning which means they give 
the same work to all the kids and expect the kids to take it where they 
will.

I went away feeling okay about it but the more I process what he said the 
less confident I feel.

We shall see.
Kristy