- Tracking overall did appear to affect students’ perceptions of themselves as learners of mathematics. Those in fast track groups perceived themselves as doing well, whilst those in the mixed-track groups perceived themselves as “low”.
- Mixed-ability grouping, due to the skew in numbers, decreases the opportunities for higher attaining students to interact constructively whilst tracking does the same for lower attaining students.
- Only for the highest attaining 12% is placement in the tracked blocks advantageous. Placement in the fast track is beneficial for only upper half of each fast-track group. For other students, in this school, tracking made no difference or was deleterious.
- Unless a school can demonstrate that it is getting better than expected results through a different approach, we do make the presumption that mixed-ability grouping should be the norm in secondary schools.