Definition of Ability grouping

Ability grouping (also known as streaming, setting or tracking) is the practice, in education, of placing students into groups or classes based on their abilities, talents, or previous achievement. For example, an eight-year-old who could do complex mathematics would be placed in a more advanced class than another child of the same age who was struggling with basic mathematical concepts. Such grouping may be very fluid and temporary, such as when elementary reading teachers place children into small reading groups whose members may change several times throughout the school year. Other grouping systems, sometimes known as “tracking,” (a more controversial system) can become effectively permanent, freezing students into higher-level and lower-level tracks.