"54% majority believes that mixing fast and slow learners in the same class would improve kids' academic achievement."
A friend and I were just talking about this same topic today. Her very bright daughter has sat all year in a classroom loaded with sped kids, potential sped kids, and a some average kids sprinkled in the mix. It has not only been a terrible experience for her daughter, but for the other kids as well.
Once, while volunteering in her child's classroom, a child tells her she wishes she was as smart as her daughter, but she is not. My friend said it was the saddest comment she had ever heard. Also, when helping one student, he asked to be excused to go to the bathroom, when he came back into the classroom, he hid behind a plant. The reason? He was totally stressed about reviewing for the state test. He couldn't do it. She said she had another crawl under the desk.
Her daughter can't concentrate because the sped teacher is calling out answers to a test for the others. It is loud in the classroom.
Whose academic achievement is being improved here when all the kids are grouped together with such a wide disparity?
I had one teacher tell me "As the administrators and teachers plan classrooms, they take into consideration even more than the individual learning and teaching styles of the students and teachers. They must craft healthy, stable, and creative learning communities for each class in each of the grade levels."
Would anyone call the classroom I described as being stable?
Different Drummers
the struggle
gifted children and ed schools
portrait of a heterogeneous classroom
constructivism and classroom discipline
I dug up the research in support of heterogeneous classrooms awhile back.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by how old much of it was, the small sample size, lack of controls, and ambiguous the results. More current research has called the benefits of heterogeneous classrooms, "pure fantasy."
Yet the goal of inclusive, heterogeneous classrooms is a sacred cow. Clustering or flexible ability groupings are so disparaged, you will be labeled a racist for even bringing it up. (Even if your school district is 96% white/asian).
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteDo you have a website for that research or direct me to where I could find it? I would love to read it.
Heterogeneous "differentiation" classrooms are supposed to be good for self esteem because no one is in a "higher" or "lower" grouping and everyone feels good about themselves. Are you kidding? The students know who struggles and who is a whiz. My daughter told me someone in her class said "How come you're a year younger than we are and you're so smart?" But she has to sit in class and learn at the same pace, same depth, and same intensity of the ones who struggle. No wonder she's checking out. I would too.
ReplyDeletePaula - I will find the research and post on it at some point.
ReplyDeleteI think much of it is in paper format, so if I can't get links up, I'll at least give you a cite.
Lynn-Thank you. The principal at our school has mentioned heterogeneous grouping in several conversations I've had with her.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you know if team teaching benefits mixed ability classrooms? What exactly is a "self-contained" classroom?
Paula-At least in our district, there are different levels of classroom. "Self-contained" (also known as the instructional class) is a special ed setting. Class size is usually 10 or less and it's designed for kids 3 years below grade level, though there is some flexibility in that if the child would benefit from the smaller group. There's also a "resource" teacher to work with kids below grade level but less than 3 years below. Next level up would be a co-taught class that has both special ed and mainstream kids in it. The sped teacher can modify content and assignments if need be. Then there's a regular ed class. I guess the top level for elementary through 6th would be gifted "clusters" in the regular class. Honors classes start in 7th grade in Math, and 8th in Science.
ReplyDeleteSome districts have "self-contained" gifted classrooms but as this is supposedly expensive, those are usually the first to get cut at budget time. As to whether team-teaching (or co-taught) classes benefit mixed ability classes, I think it all depends on the teachers. We've had really good experiences and some very mediocre ones (speaking from the viewpoint of a sped parent). Our district may be different though, as it is expressly NOT an inclusion district, but a "least restrictive environment" district. They are pretty flexible with placing sped kids into different classes for different subjects depending on ability. This is what we're doing in middle school. Meg will be in self-contained for Math and Writing, co-taught for other academic subjects, and with everyone else for "specials." There are no "inclusion" classes per se.
Kathy-I think your description is about the same for ours, however, our principal keeps referring to non-clusion and inclusion classes. The team teaching approach is something the school is trying across grade levels this school term. The principal seems to see the team teaching approach as benefitting those with mixed abilities. Next year, there will be three teachers team teaching in the third grade.
ReplyDeleteFourth grade is when the kids change classes. At least, according to our principal, some will change classes. She hinted that the child had to have good organizational skills. The student had to be able to handle the load. Makes sense, but I thought that was the goal of the school...to help all students, not just the ones they assess as being "ready".
In our school, they start changing classes in 3rd grade for Science/Social Studies and this continues through 5th. Basically there are 4 teachers for each grade and 2 teach Science and 2 teach Social Studies. Then in middle school it's a team approach with 2-3 teachers per team that share teaching of the academic subjects, with added flexibility for resource/sped instructional, etc. I think nearly all kids change classes to some extent. From what I've seen and read, inclusion or co-teaching/team teaching can be done well if you get the right teachers--a gen ed teacher with enough flexibility to deal with the differing abilities and reach all the kids, and a spec ed teacher who provides the right level of assistance. Unfortunately, that's not the reality. Many gen ed teachers have little/no training to deal with the sped kids and the team's roles aren't clearly defined. Or they throw a poorly qualified aide/parapro in the mix who ends up making matters worse for everyone. We had a teacher in 2nd grade who made it work. One of my sister's kids had an "inclusion" teacher that made it work and parents with kids of both high and low ability requested this teacher. But that is NOT what usually happens.
ReplyDelete"But that is NOT what usually happens."
ReplyDeleteExactly.
However, I keep telling myself this is government education. This is as good as it gets, I guess. Still, it is a hard pill to swallow.