Week 8 objective - Confirmation

1. What is my thesis?
Every elementary schools should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.

2. What types of source am I using to defend my thesis? 
I am using expert opinions, examples, and statistics.

3. Are my arguments mostly based on evidence, logic or emotion?
My arguments have many statistics and examples. I think my arguments are mostly based on evidence.

I will provide the results that presents the Korea students have the lowest happiness degree within OECD nations because of Korea education system. Then, I will argue my opinion with this results.

My Confirmation

Korean education system makes students stressful. Even though Korean schools don't implement ability grouping, Korean students have the lowest happiness level of students between OECD nations. Further, after Korean schools start giving lessons with ability grouping, Korean students get more stress from it. The reason why Korean schools implement ability grouping is to make students study harder. Many elementary, middle and high schools in Korea started implementing ability grouping. Ability grouping (also know as tracking) is the education system that grouping children according to their talents in schools. Proponents of ability grouping say that the practice allows teachers to tailor the pace and content of instruction much better to students' needs and, thus, improve student achievement. In contrast, opponents contend that ability grouping not only fails to benefit any student, but it also channels poor and minority students to low tracks where they receive a lower quality of instruction than other groups. Also, ability grouping contributes to a widening of the achievement gaps. The National Education Association believes that the use of discriminatory academic tracking must be eliminated in all public school settings (NEA Resolutions B-16, 1998, 2005)

Then, is ability grouping really beneficial to improve students' academic performance? I don't think so. More than 2000 fifth and sixth grade public school students in New Your City provided the data, over a two-year period, upon which the conclusions are based. According to this data, the ability grouping had no significant effect on academic achievement. Differently with the original purpose of ability grouping, it have no positive effect on students' academic ability. Rather, it has many negative effects to students. It means, Korean schools don't have reason to implement ability grouping. Therefore, I argue that every elementary schools should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.