His peculiar obsession...

"He has a peculiar obsession with the idea of sending a skua to Venus."listen

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ability grouping

Or "tracking", as it also referred to, is the grouping of students
according to achievement in order to tailor course content to
ability as determined by teachers and administrators using
various criteria.

It is a grimly compelling topic as it touches on status, rank,
and whether our children are seen as worthy to enter the
highest echelons of society.

We are able to clearly see differences in ability in all areas
of human performance.  Do we minimize these differences
in some areas of society (education), while selecting for them
in others (professional sports, business)?


Perusing the subject online yields various data points such as:

-60 percent of elementary schools use some form of tracking.
-The criteria used today to select groups is less narrow than has
been used in the past, in which the determinant was mainly
intelligence or achievement testing.

-Of the modern, more nuanced, brands of tracking, some schools
follow a "Joplin", or "modified Joplin" method where classes
remain heterogeneous (de-tracked) except for specialized group
instruction with-in the class in a particular subject, usually reading
or math.

-In grade school, neutral labels such as "Bluebirds" and "Redbirds".