An Evaluation of the Effects of "Bona Fide" Homogeneous Grouping on the Achievement of Elementary School Students

The effects of "bona fide" homogeneous grouping of students in grades 4 through 8 in a southeastern school system on the students' subsequent academic achievement were studied. These effects were studied for black students as well as for all students regardless of race, across 2 years. The student population was composed of over 4,800 fourth- through eighth-grade students, assigned to language arts and mathematics classes on the basis of their scores on the California Achievement Test Battery taken in the spring prior to class assignment. This method of grouping had been approved by the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education with the stipulation that student achievement be evaluated every year. When the effects of "bona fide" homogeneous grouping were summarized for all children regardless of race, detrimental effects predominated. Examination of the 2-year effects for black students revealed mixed results for language arts and consistently detrimental effects for mathematics. The use of "bona fide" homogeneous grouping appeared clearly beneficial only to black students whose initial language arts achievement scores were low. These findings suggest that the assignment of students on the basis of homogeneous grouping should be questioned. Nine graphs illustrate the performance of groups, and 14 tables summarize study data. (SLD)