Week 16 objective - Final Draft!

Is Ability Grouping really necessary for students?

It is true that Korean students are suffered from academic stress the most. According to the Korea Bang Jeong-hwan Foundation and Social Development Institute at Yonsei University said that Korean students' happiness degree came to 65.98 points in 2011. In other words, only 6 of 10 elementary school students feel happy about their lives. Surprisingly, it is the lowest among 23 OECD member countries. Also a researcher of the foundation said that Korean students' happiness is low because they are under great pressure to study. Even, elementary school students also get stress from studying. One reason why Korean students get stress is 'ability grouping'. Korean government implemented ‘ability grouping’ because of 7^th revised education curriculum until 2009. According to it, every Korean school started giving lessons with ability grouping. I strongly argue that, every school should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.

Ability grouping, also known as tracking, is the practice of grouping children together according to their scores. Korean government implemented ability grouping to enhance the effectiveness of education. Government’s original intention of it is that they can get help more from their friends and there will be increased scores if students get class with friends who have similar academic talents with them. If ability grouping has implemented according to this original purpose, there is no reason to disagree with it. The problem is that, however, ability grouping has not implemented like government’s original intention. Most teachers in schools claim that ‘ability grouping’ which government intended cannot be realized in reality. Jeong Eun-kyun, a teacher in Korea middle school, said that ability grouping justifies the way which dividing students according to their academic talents. 

There is an interesting experiment about ability grouping by King’s College. The experimenters divided students into five groups according to their academic scores. From students’ interviews, we can assume that ability grouping gives much stress to students in every levels.  

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, 1^st level, girl). 

She was in high-level group. Even though she was in high-level class, she said she was depressed, because she felt that she couldn’t understand the class only. Many people think that there is no depressed students in high-level class because they are estimated ‘high’ level from school. However, even in high-level class, they also get much stress because they think that they are ‘underachievers’ themselves.

The SATS were hard because our classwork is so easy, so we hadn’t done it.I want to be brainy and go up and be good at maths, but I won’t go up if the work is too easy. (School R, 5^th level, boy)

He was in low-level group. Because he was in low-level group, he had no chance to get high-level math class. It can be interpreted that ability grouping violated the right to be educated. Every student has right to learn what they want, but ability grouping violates that boy’s right to learn what he wants. 

Ability grouping does not lead to students’ increased scores. It is the most serious problem of ability grouping. Korean government said that every school should give lessons with ability grouping because it is helpful to increase students’ academic scores. In other words, if there is no reason to give lessons with ability grouping. Unfortunately, it is true that there is NO positive effect originated from ability grouping. 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 has 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 school should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.

Ability grouping also makes inequality of education between students. 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). Adam Gamoran insisted that, more experienced and qualified teachers are assigned high levels when schools divide students according to their academic scores. Also, according to Nicholls in 1989, ability grouping makes inequality between students.

Plenty of people, especially parents of students may disagree with my opinion. They may think that ability grouping can improve student achievement. However, as I mentioned before, ability grouping had no academic improvement. In addition, 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.

It is not hard to find sources that ability grouping is not good for 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 every Korean school started giving lessons with ability grouping. Ability grouping not only makes students get stress from it but it also makes students feel they are under achievers in studying. Ability grouping isn't good method to implement in every school. Therefore, I strongly argue that every school should NOT give lessons with ability grouping.

<References>

Standards, Inequality & Ability Grouping in Schools

http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/PDF%20Files/Brief025.pdf

The Disadvantages and Ability Grouping : A Look at Cooperative Learning as an Alternative

http://www.dropoutprevention.org/sites/default/files/SS05.pdf

Research Spotlight on Academic Ability Grouping 

http://www.nea.org/tools/16899.htm

The Effects of Ability Grouping

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED031536

Did you get any benefit from ability grouping? (수준별 수업으로 재미 좀 보셨나요?)

http://www.ohmynews.com/nws_web/view/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0001828810

Elementary school students also have 'sad' ability grouping (초등학생도 눈물의 '하'반)

http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/schooling/294144.html

Students experiences of ability grouping - disaffection, polarisation, and the construction of failure.
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/csme/meas/papers/boaler.html

Implementing ability grouping in EFL contexts : Perceptions of teachers and students
http://ltr.sagepub.com/content/16/3/289.abstract

Korean students least happy in OECD
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/05/113_86432.html

We don't need quite so much education
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/05/113_86432.html