Rank, Performance, and Mobility in Elementary School Grouping

Abstract

Because the stratified levels in schools and school systems bear widely accepted symbolic statuses, students' positions in the hierarchy may influence the pattern of their educational careers, independently of their scholastic achievement. This article measures the effects of the rank of students' reading groups in first grade and their first-grade achievement on assignment to a reading group at the beginning of second grade. Two patterns are discovered: one in which students' reading-group levels in second grade depend on their first-grade positions, and a second in which achievement appears to be the criterion used for placement. However, examination of the composition of first- and second-grade reading groups reveals that in both cases, teachers attempt to reduce the heterogeneity of low- and middle-reading groups between first and second grade.