"Tracking, or ability grouping" is the process "of identifying and grouping school children who appear to have similar learning aptitudes or academic accomplishments for the purpose of providing them a differentiated course of instruction" (Oaks, 1981, p. 1). It is "one of the oldest and most controversial issues in educational psychology" (Slavin, 1986, p. 1). Ability grouping has been called diversely as tracking, skill grouping, and homogeneous grouping. Some 77% of American school districts use ability grouping (Raze, 1984, p. 1).
A great many studies have compared ability grouping (e.g. tracking, streaming, cross-grade grouping) and within-class grouping (e.g. reading, mathematics groups). The trouble is that interpretations of results of often ill-designed studies are likely to be diametrically opposed. Slavin (1986), for example, notes that "almost without exception, reviews from the 1920's to the present day have come to the same general conclusion: that between-class ability grouping has few if any benefits for student achievement" (p. 2). Yet, the practice "is nearly universal in some forms of secondary schools and very common in elementary schools" (p.2). Slavin (1986) remarks that most teachers report using and believing in some kind of ability groups (e.g. NEA, 1968; Wilson & Schmits, 1978).
In recent years, however, many districts have been reexamining ability grouping, often out of concern that students low in socio-economic status, in particular minority students, are discriminated against by being disproportionately placed in low tracks. Slavin (1986), reviewing the literature, finds that it has been for some time now a major legal issue in desegregation cases (e.g. Hobson vs Hansen, 1967), and that plaintiffs have argued that ability grouping is used as a means of resegregating Black and Hispanic students within ostensibly integrated schools (e.g. McPortland, 1968). Is this overzeal on the part of minorities ...