When Class Schedules Hold Students & Teachers Back

Schools often try to solve academic and behavior challenges by grouping students according to ability levels, but decades of research show that keeping students together all day based only on test scores or past performance creates more problems than it solves. When struggling learners, students with disabilities, and students with low motivation or behavior issues are clustered into the same classes, the overall quality of instruction tends to suffer.

How Does this Effect the Student?

Research shows that grouping students this way does little to improve outcomes for the rest of the school. In fact, advanced learners do not need to be isolated to succeed. Studies on inclusive and mixed ability classrooms consistently find that students with disabilities and other academic needs perform better when they spend most of their day in general education settings with the right supports. Peers who are more advanced do not experience academic harm in these settings. Instead, they often deepen their own understanding when they explain ideas or collaborate on meaningful tasks. Mixed environments help students build communication skills, learn how to work with diverse peers, and stay engaged through richer conversations and problem solving experiences.

For students placed in low track or isolated courses, the impact is much deeper than academic pacing. Being scheduled into classes where everyone struggles sends a message about identity. Many students begin to believe they are less capable or that advanced work is not meant for them. This can erode confidence, reduce willingness to take risks, and decrease motivation. Over time, students may avoid challenging tasks because they expect failure, even when they have the potential to grow. Researchers often call this a self fulfilling cycle, where the structure of the schedule shapes how students see themselves as learners.

There are also social consequences. Students in isolated classes often see fewer positive academic role models. They may become part of peer groups that reinforce low effort or negative attitudes toward school. When several students in the same room struggle with motivation or behavior, norms shift quickly. What starts as a few disengaged students can turn into a classroom culture where learning feels optional and peer pressure pushes achievement even lower. In contrast, mixed ability groups expose students to a wider range of habits, interests, and expectations, which can increase engagement and strengthen a sense of belonging.

Emotionally, isolation can make students feel labeled or separated from their peers. Middle and high school students are especially sensitive to how others see them, and being placed in a class known as the “low group” can be embarrassing or discouraging. Some students respond by withdrawing. Others act out because it feels safer to disrupt than to appear confused. These patterns are not caused by the students themselves but by the environment created when struggling learners are grouped together without enough support. Mixed classes do not erase challenge, but they prevent students from absorbing a negative identity based solely on a test score or past performance.

How Does this Effect the Teacher?

The strain placed on teachers in highly concentrated low track classes is significant and well documented. Managing persistent behavior challenges, adapting lessons for many students with IEPs or 504 plans, and supporting disengaged learners all within the same period dramatically increases stress and burnout. Research shows that overwhelmed teachers are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion and less likely to sustain the proactive strategies that improve classroom climate. This creates a cycle where frustration rises for everyone, including students who genuinely want to learn but feel held back by constant disruptions. These students are not harmed by being in mixed ability environments; they are harmed by being in environments where the concentration of unmet needs overwhelms the system.

My Personal Thoughts & Experiences...

There's often the notion that the "teacher who can handle it/them" is given the most challenging students to work with. Or the "teacher with the most seniority is rewarded with the gifted students". This thought process is not fair to anyone. It is not fair to the students. It is not fair to the teacher.

Everyone gets exhausted at some point. On the contrary, inexperienced teachers are stretched to their limits because they are learning the pedagogy AND are given the students who need the most support because more experienced teachers work with gifted students. No shade to those teachers. They earned the right to teach those students through countless hours of courses and participating in the endorsement process.

As previously stated, this leads to burnout. I have seen and experienced it. If we want students to truly thrive in their academic environment, they need to be exposed to others. Children feed off each other, and mixing academic abilities and interests benefits everyone. The children and teacher deserve this. I believe that allowing students to participate in learning experiences with students who are slightly different from them academically allows the lower students to push a little harder. I have always been intentional about the way I group students within my own classroom. I sometimes pair a lower student with a higher student so they can collaborate with each other.

Scheduling decisions are not neutral. They shape the culture of a school, the expectations placed on learners, and the emotional workload carried by teachers. The most effective structures do not isolate students by ability for the entire day. Instead, they blend heterogeneous classes with flexible, short term supports such as small group instruction, targeted interventions, and co teaching. This approach distributes student needs more evenly, maintains high expectations for all, and reduces the stigma that often follows students placed in low track courses.

When schools design schedules that mix learners and allocate proper support, they create classrooms where students thrive socially and academically, and where teachers can focus more on teaching than on constant crisis management.

Thank you for reading! Have a great day!

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