Heterogeneous-Homogeneous Grouping

Ability grouping, and its close relative, tracking, has been of concern in education for many years and the subject of more research studies than almost any other educational practice. Heterogeneous grouping refers to grouping arrangements in which whole classes of students are grouped so that they vary according to achievement or inferred ability or to within-class groupings that place students in similarly diverse groups to learn together. This grouping practice is associated with efforts to ensure high academic standards for all students and to allow all students the benefits of access to high-level instructional practices. Homogeneous grouping involves creating groups in which all members are considered to be the same in some way or at the same learning or achievement level. Grouping practices have effects on achievement, self-esteem, understanding of diversity, and other cognitive and social outcomes.

Those who promote homogeneous grouping for instruction (including many teachers and parents) argue that it is easier to target instruction when students are grouped by ability. Gifted education and special education are both examples of attempts to group students homogeneously in ways that have major implications for the instruction to which they are exposed and the expectations of those who teach them.

Heterogeneous groups are sometimes discussed only in terms of differences in learning levels or performance, but groups can be heterogeneous in many ways, including differences in race, gender, language, religion, social skills, sexual orientation, and so on. The arguments in favor of heterogeneous grouping include the following:

• 1.
  The world is increasingly diverse (heterogeneous), and it is only through working with others who are different or who are perceived as different that students will learn to work cooperatively and without prejudice with a wide range of other people.
• 2.
  Heterogeneous groups lend themselves to natural peer support and peer tutoring, thereby increasing the number of teachers in the classroom and significantly altering peer relationships.
• 3.
  Heterogeneous grouping can significantly minimize the stigma associated with being in the “low” group, including the risks of self-fulfilling prophecy and subsequent diminution of learning opportunities.
• 4.
  The intended gains for students in ability groups often fail to materialize, and formation of such groups often correlates with income, social class, and race, resulting in racially and class-segregated classes and instructional groups.

Heterogeneous grouping is closely related to concepts of detracking and has been used to minimize race-based segregation as well as to address the inclusion of students with disabilities in more typical school settings.

The use of heterogeneous groups is one of the key concepts within the field of cooperative learning in which a small heterogeneous group of students works toward a shared goal with task interdependence and individual accountability. Elizabeth Cohen's work on cooperative group work, however, made it clear that unless status issues are addressed specifically and directly, even [Page 439]students who are in heterogeneous groups will quickly replicate societal patterns of domination and participation, privileging those from dominant gender and racial groups.

Reviews of research on ability grouping have yielded few results favorable to the practice. The effects of tracking are particularly negative for poor, minority, and limited English proficient students. Some research in this area has found that high achievers may gain from ability grouping at the expense of low achievers, but most studies indicate that, overall, the effects of ability grouping are negligible for students at all achievement levels. In 1989, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development recommended the elimination of all tracking (ability grouping) in schools serving early adolescents.

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