ability grouping

ability grouping, in the United States the separation of elementary and secondary students into classrooms or courses of instruction according to their actual or perceived ability levels. Opponents of ability grouping argue that such policies tend to segregate students along racial and socioeconomic lines and that those channeled into lower-level classes are frequently provided a substantially different curriculum, thereby continuing a cycle of inequality.

Grouping students by ability has been a source of controversy in American public education almost since the inception of the practice in the late 1860s. Consequently, the practice has come in and out of favour. In the early 20th century, for instance, ability grouping experienced a rise in popularity that coincided with the introduction of intelligence testing and scientific management strategies into public education. That period of growth was followed by a decline in popularity during the 1930s and ’40s, as the progressive education movement questioned not only the effectiveness of grouping but also its appropriateness in a democratic society. However, in the late 1950s ability grouping experienced a resurgence as the United States sought to match the technological accomplishments of the Soviet Union. In the 1960s ability grouping often functioned as a de facto form of racial segregation, separating white students from their African American peers, who often suffered from academic deficiencies as a result of poverty and discrimination.

Tracking, a form of ability grouping, faced its first legal challenge in the District of Columbia’s school system, where black students were disproportionately placed in the lowest academic tracks. Evidence indicated that once assigned to a track, students were not reevaluated on a regular basis and rarely moved to higher tracks, even though the school district justified the use of tracking as a means of remedying students’ deficiencies. In Hobson v. Hansen (1967), the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that although ability grouping was not unlawful when it served legitimate educational objectives, its application in the District of Columbia was discriminatory and constituted a violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. In 1976 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in McNeal v. Tate that school districts under a Fourteenth Amendment legal obligation to desegregate could not employ ability grouping if it resulted in significant levels of building, classroom, or course segregation, unless districts could demonstrate that grouping assignments did not reflect the present results of past segregation.

Although much of the litigation against ability grouping has relied on equal protection principles, the practice has also been challenged under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race and national origin in programs and services operated by recipients of federal financial assistance.