Ability grouping: The perceptions of the administrators, teachers, and parents

The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding on the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and parents on ability grouping at the middle school level. The authors sought to answer whether administrators, teachers, and parents have an overall positive perception of ability grouping or not. Using a quantitative descriptive research design, the data were gathered from one middle school in an anonymous school district in central South Carolina. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data from three middle school administrators, 49 middle school teachers, and 350 randomly selected middle school parents. The Teacher Attitudes Towards Ability Grouping Survey (TATAGS) was administered to administrators and teachers, while the Parents Attitudes Towards Ability Grouping Survey (PTATAGS) was administered to the parents. The response rate is 100% (n=3) for administrators, 96% (n=47) for teachers, and 62% (n=217) for parents. The findings have revealed that the administrators and parents did not have an overall positive perception of ability grouping because of mixed perceptions and moderately positive responses on the average. On the other hand, the teachers' overall perceptions were mixed, although these are mostly positive---indicating that teachers have an overall positive perception of ability grouping. The findings of this study provided evidences that administrators, teachers, and parents have favorable perceptions toward ability grouping despite several negative literatures on the subject. Despite mixed perceptions among administrators, the favorable perceptions found in this study serve as a leverage to continue the practice of ability grouping in middle schools.