Education almost always groups students by age, and that tendency is so ingrained that many students that do not meet performance goals or levels of accomplishment are passed on to the next grade anyway, because the stuff about self-esteem and social growth are far too often deemed more important than the academic part of learning. Why do we continue to group students to successive educational levels by age? You’re gonna hate this, but it’s because that’s what we’ve always done since about 1850 or so. Even though student age tells us nothing about what each student can or might be capable of, that’s what we use. That’s also why most teachers teach to the middle of the class; that is, they don’t teach above the level that most of the students can follow. They often do, however, teach above the heads of the students most challenged by the material, those that may not read, write or be as academically proficient as their peers for any number of reasons. This system has managed to perpetuate itself with little or no real research into discovering whether or not there might be a better way. Tradition, no matter how ineffective or inappropriate, is always a difficult hurdle to overcome. Ever wonder where achievement gaps originate? Look no further than low socioeconomic status and a system that year after year teaches primarily to the middle of the class and every year leaves slow developers or those that missed the basic concepts of reading, writing and math further and further behind.
I wholeheartedly agree.