This descriptive study examined the perceptions of teachers toward grouping and evaluation of pupil learning progress in reading. Instructional grouping decisions by teachers were viewed as part of the evaluation function of teaching. Teacher practices in grouping and evaluation were assumed to represent significant classroom level indicators of equity and excellence in the education provided for children. A major priority for the inquiry was to discover whether the evaluation information collected about students lead teachers to change the practice of ability grouping. Three major research questions guided the study: (1) What criteria do teachers report they use to group pupils for instruction in reading? (2) What are teachers' perceptions of the similarities and differences in ways that they evaluate pupil learning progress across instructional groups for reading? (3) What are teachers' perceptions of ways they use data from their evaluation of pupil learning progress in reading? The study adapts assumptions from interpretive and critical theoretical perspectives complemented by a qualitative research design to describe the perceptions of teachers for grouping and evaluating students in reading. Data are drawn from interviews with 23 experienced teachers representing grades 5 and 6 in ten schools in western Massachusetts. Findings indicate that teachers tend to rely on previous teacher recommendations and the results of their own informal assessments as criteria for grouping students by ability within the classroom. Teachers assign students to within-class ability groups during the first few weeks of school. Students tend to remain in the reading groups to which they were initially assigned. Teachers' evaluation methods and performance criteria vary depending on whether they are in a basal or non-basal reading curriculum. Teachers reported that they expect students placed in higher ability groups to proceed at a faster pace through the reading curriculum and to produce written work that was more detailed and of higher quality than students placed in lower ability groups. Teachers report numerous uses of data from pupil evaluation. The primary uses are for communicating with parents and students and for improving instruction. The study concludes that despite the diverse ways that teachers evaluate student learning progress in Reading, little student mobility occurs across the instructional groups, nor does the evaluation data collected by teachers suggest to them a need to change the practice of ability grouping.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-8041 |
| Date | 01 January 1991 |
| Creators | Cash, Kriner |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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