Ability grouping, also known as tracking, is the practice of grouping children together according to their scores. According to an experiment in King's College, we can infer how ability grouping makes students stressful. A girl who participated in this experiment said that,
I mean I get really depressed — it really depressed me, the fact that everyone in the class is like really far ahead and I just don’t understand.
Yeah ’cause like especially when everyone else understands it and you think ‘Oh my God I’m the only one in the class that doesn’t understand it’
If you don’t understand something, then it’s just like, you know, it really depresses you. (School F, set 3, girls).
Like she said, almost every student said that they got much stress from ability grouping. I strongly argue that, every elementary schools should NOT give lessons with ability grouping to lessen students' academic stress.
Except ability grouping, there are already many strange education systems which make students stressful. For example, there is a standardized exam called 일제고사 in Korean. Here is one example which exposures the compulsion of Korean education. In 20 January 2009, seven elementary and middle school teachers in Seoul have been fired for giving students and parents a choice about whether to take a standardized test - 일제고사. El General Secretary Fred Van Leeuwen said that "Across the OECD countries, teachers are becoming increasingly concerned about the uses and abuses of standardized testing and its vastly increased stress on students and teachers". This kind if standardized testing might raise unnecessary competition among studnts and give children a heavy, stressful burden. We can infer from this example that the South Korean education system is highly competitive, with government policy compelling all elementary and middle school students across the country to sit the standardized tests.
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. 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.
There may plenty of people who disagree with my opinion. First, they may think that studying is the most important thing for students. But, it is not true. There are many things more important than studying for students. According to some articles, we can find the other things more important than studying easily. For example, there is an article names 'Why sleeping may be more important than studying". Like this article, there are may things more important than studying such as sleeping. Second, they may think that ability grouping has lots of advantages. But, even though there are some advantages, it should not implement. According to investigation from George, in 1988, 85% of the research says ability grouping is not beneficial. Also, ability grouping does not do what it is expected to do with majority of the students. Finally, according to Nicholls in 1989, ability grouping makes inequality between students. Third, they may say that implementing ability grouping is a practice for middle and high schools. However, elementary school students don't necessary to practice to be middle school and high school students. Rather, implementing ability grouping may give elementary school students repulsion to studying. Therefore, I strongly argue that every elementary schools should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.
It is not hard to find sources that there are many things more important than studying, and ability grouping is not good for elementary school students. Today, Korean students are suffered from studying and they get stress from it the most in the world. Even in Korean society, elementary school students also get stress very much from studying. This is because Korean elementary schools start giving lessons with ability grouping. Ability grouping not only makes elementary school students get stress from it but it also makes students feel studying is boring. It is too fast to implement ability grouping to elementary school students. For elementary school students, studying can't be the most important thing. There are many things more important than studying such as sleeping, friendship, or family. Ability grouping isn't good method to implement in elementary schools. There fore, I strongly argue that every elementary schools should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.
