Ability Grouping and its Effect on Pupil Behaviour: A Case Study of a Midlands Comprehensive School

With minor variations, secondary schools in Britain follow one of four policies on ability grouping: Streaming: when each class in an annual intake is arranged hierarchically from the most to the least able, and pupils remain with their class for all subjects until the option system requires them to specialise; even then, all classes taking any one option are grouped according to ability. Setting: this is a variation on streaming, but classes are grouped by ability for particular subjects, for example maths or science. Banding: here pupils are divided into two or less frequently three ability bands, but within each band each class is of mixed ability. Mixed ability: here teachers seek to ensure that every class contains pupils with the full range of intellectual ability and social background (Wilcox and Eustace, 1980).