Setting pupils harms school performance

A return to setting and streaming in state schools may have harmed those it was most supposed to have helped – the pupils, says a report out today.

A study of 500 teachers on the Teach First scheme, which recruits hundreds of the brightest graduates to learn how to teach on the job in urban schools, says there are "a range of benefits" in teaching in mixed ability classes.

"There is evidence that mixed ability classes have a positive effect on the attitudes and self-esteem of all pupils regardless of their ability level," it says.

By contrast, allocating them to classes according to their abilities "has been shown to reinforce divisions along the lines of class, gender and race", it adds.

It says Teach First staff who were interviewed on the subject expressed the importance of "pairing stronger and weaker pupils" so each could improve their understanding of subjects.

The weak were encouraged to improve their performance by working alongside someone better than them who could explain it to them – while the strong gained confidence from acting as a quasi-teacher. In bottom sets, youngsters could become demoralised with teachers having low expectations of them.

The only people who benefit from setting and streaming are the teachers – particularly at the start of their careers – who find it difficult to pitch a lesson at a mixed ability class, it says.

The report's conclusions challenge current thinking on the issue, which is in favour of increasing setting in schools.

Setting has been in favour since Tony Blair made a personal pledge in the 1997 election campaign to campaign to increase its use.

The Teach First scheme, which employs around 500 graduates with top degree passes who did not take a teaching qualification, began in London and has now spread to the Midlands and Manchester. It has been widely credited with raising education standards in some of the poorest schools.