Does within-school between-class ability grouping harm the educational outcomes of socio-economically disadvantaged children? International evidence
Abstract
Abstract Grouping students into different classes based upon their academic achievement or ability is a relatively common practice across the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. Yet some argue that teaching students in mixed-ability classes is a better approach, with important benefits for those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Unfortunately, existing evidence comparing outcomes across these approaches is scant. This paper hence provides new international evidence on this matter, drawing upon data from the 2015 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study study. Our results point towards null effects; neither approach leads to demonstrably better outcomes for students than the other. This also holds true for young people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, suggesting that between-class ability grouping does not harm the educational prospects of these children. Some limited evidence does emerge, however, that primary school teachers believe they are better able to support struggling students—and challenge the highest achievers—when ability grouping is used.
Ingestion failed: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/srv/app/app/worker.py", line 85, in run_once process_job(db, job) File "/srv/app/app/worker.py", line 39, in process_job pdf_path, info = fetch_pdf_temp(candidate["url"]) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/srv/app/app/downloader.py", line 129, in fetch_pdf_temp raise ValueError(f"PDF source returned HTTP {response.status_code}.") ValueError: PDF source returned HTTP 404.
No local PDF is available.
GROBID Extracted text; discontinued.
This text is generated from TEI extraction for accessibility, search, and TTS. Formulas, tables, figures, page layout, and references may not perfectly match the original PDF.
No accessible text representation is available. The text extraction service has been discontinued for the time being. If you require this service, for accessibility or any other reason, please submit an issue/request on this page.
Metadata
Issues
No public issues have been filed for this DOI.
Submit an issue
Record history
| When | Event | Field | Old | New |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-18 19:37:53.011249+00:00 | identifier_assigned | DSEID | DSEID-001-3764827 |