Streaming

• streaming (Douglas)

  • involves placing children in a certain group based on their perceived ability
  • each ability group is then taught separately form the others for all subjects
  • studies show that the self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur when children are streamed
  • working class children are more likely to put themselves in a lower stream
  • once streamed it is usually difficult to move up to a higher stream; children are more or less locked into their teachers low expectations of them
  • children in the lower streams 'get the message' that their teachers have written them off as no-hopers
  • Douglas found that children placed in lower streams at young ages suffered a decline in their IQ score as they grew older
  • by contrast middle class pupils tend to benefit from streaming as likely to be placed in higher streams reflecting teachers view of them as the 'ideal pupil'
• educational triage - Gilborne and Youdell

  • sorting students into categories based on how they believe they will do at school
  • group 1 - students who will pass without help
  • group 2 - have the potential just need a little guidance
  • group 3 - "hopeless cases"
  • teachers do this by using a stereotypical view of working class and black pupils as lacking ability
  • as a result they are likely to be labelled as 'hopeless cases' and simply in bottom sets
  • this produces a self-fulfilling prophecy and failure
• streaming and the A-to-C economy

  • Gillborn and Youdells study shows how teachers use stereotypical notions of 'ability' to stream pupils
  • found that teachers are less likely to see working class and black pupils as having ability
  • as a result these pupils are more likely to be placed in low streams and entered for foundation papers
  • this denies them the knowledge and opportunities needed to get better grades and widens the class gap in achievement
  • they link streaming to the policy of publishing exam league tables
  • publishing league tables creates what Gillborn and Youdell call the 'A to C economy in schools where schools focus their time, effort and resources on pupils with potential for 5 A*-C grades to boost their position in the league table