ABOUT WCER NEWS Events Cover Stories Research News International Research Press WHAT'S THE RESEARCH ON...? PROJECTS All Active Projects All Completed Projects PUBLICATIONS LECTURE SERIES PEOPLE Staff Directory Project Leaders ERG - EVALUATION RESOURCES GROUP RESOURCES Conference Rooms Equipment GRANT SERVICES GRADUATE TRAINING SERVICE UNITS Director's Office Business Office Technical Services Printing & Mail EMPLOYMENT CONTACT INFO MyWCER WORKSPACE LOGIN

New Findings in Differentiated Instruction

September 8, 2009

The practice of tracking and ability grouping involves dividing students into separate tracks, classes, and groups for instruction based on their purported interests and abilities. Its value has long been debated. Evidence from decades of research indicates that tracking magnifies inequality between high and low achievers without raising achievement overall. High achievers perform better in tracked systems while low achievers perform worse, compared to similar students in mixed-ability contexts. Recent work by Adam Gamoran sustains these findings and advances them in three areas. New work on classroom assignment and instruction has identified approaches that may capture the benefits of differentiation for meeting students’ varied needs without giving rise to the consequences for inequality that commonly accompany tracking and ability grouping. Read WCER Working Paper No. 2009-6.