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Version 1.3 – Updated November 2024

Tracking / streaming

Overview

  • Influence: Tracking / streaming
  • Domain: Classroom
  • Sub-Domain: Class composition effects
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Likely to have a small positive impact
  • Influence Definition: Separating students, most often by academic ability, into groups for all subjects or certain subjects, and often then adjusting the expanse and depth of curriculum for these tracks. It is also referred to as streaming or phasing in various countries.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 15
  • Number of studies: 522
  • Number of students: 0
  • Number of effects: 1,349
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.08
  • Robustness index: 3

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
American Educational Research Journal Kulik & Kulik USA Effects of Ability Grouping on Secondary School Students: A Meta-analysis of Evaluation Findings 1982 Ability grouping on high school students 52 0 51 0.10
Conference paper Kulik & Kulik USA Effects of Ability Grouping on Elementary School Pupils: A Meta-Analysis. 1984 Ability grouping in elementary grades 23 0 23 0.19
ERIC Kulik & Kulik USA Effects of Inter-Class Ability Grouping on Achievement and Self-Esteem. 1985 Inter-class ability grouping 85 0 85 0.15
ERIC Noland & Taylor USA The Effects of Ability Grouping: A Meta-Analysis of Research Finding 1986 Ability grouping 50 0 720 -0.08
Review of Educational Research Slavin UK Ability grouping and student achievement in elementary schools: A best-evidence synthesis. 1987 Ability grouping in elementary grades 14 0 17 0.00
Dissertation Henderson USA A meta-analysis of ability grouping achievement and attitude in the elementary grades. 1989 Ability grouping in elementary grades 6 0 6 0.23
Review of Educational Research Slavin USA Achievement Effects of Ability Grouping in Secondary Schools: A Best-Evidence Synthesis 1990 Ability grouping on high school students 29 0 29 -0.02
Review of Educational Research Gutierrez & Slavin USA Achievement Effects of the Nongraded Elementary School: A Best Evidence Synthesis 1992 Nongraded elementary schools 14 0 14 0.34
Gifted Child Quarterly Kulik & Kulik USA Meta-analytic findings on grouping programs 1992 Ability grouping 56 0 51 0.03
Dissertation Kim USA The impact of the nongraded program on students' affective domains and cognitive domains 1996 Nongraded schools in Kentucky 96 0 96 0.17
Harvard Educational Review Mosteller, Light, & Sachs USA Sustained inquiry in education: Lessons from skill grouping and class size 1996 Ability grouping 10 0 10 0.00
Conference paper Lou, Abrami, Spence, Poulsen, Chambers, & Poulsen Canada A Meta-analysis of the effects of homogeneous versus heterogeneous group ability composition on student achievement: Looking at the "best" evidence. 1996 Ability grouping 12 0 12 0.12
Review of Educational Research Steenberggen-Hu, Makel, & Olszewski-Kubilius USA What one hundred years of research says about the effects of ability grouping and acceleration on K–12 students' academic achievement: Findings of two second-order meta-analyses 2016 Ability grouping in RCT studies 11 0 11 0.03
Conference paper Baker USA The effects of ability grouping on Black and Brown students: A meta-analysis of 11 primary studies. 2022 Ability grouping with Black & Brown students 11 0 11 -0.03
Review of Educational Research Terrin & Triventi Italy The effect of school tracking on student achievement and inequality: A meta-analysis.  2023 Ability grouping on achievement 53 0 213 -0.02
TOTAL/AVERAGE 522 0 1,349 0.08
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