Total School Cluster Grouping and Differentiation

A Comprehensive, Research-based Plan for Raising Student Achievement and Improving Teacher Practices

Marcia Gentry

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000490091
• Edizione: 2
• Argomento: Education
• Categoria: Education General

The Total School Cluster Grouping Model is a specific, research-based, total-school application of cluster grouping combined with differentiation, focused on meeting the needs of students identified as gifted while also improving teaching, learning, and achievement of all students. This revised and updated second edition of Total School Cluster Grouping and Differentiation includes rationale and research followed by specific steps for developing site-specific applications that will make the important art of differentiation possible by reducing the range of achievement levels in teachers' classrooms. Materials to support staff development—including powerful simulations, evaluation, management, special populations, differentiation strategies, social and emotional needs, and recommended materials—are included.

PART I DEVELOPING A TSCG PROGRAM

DOI: 10.4324/9781003239239-1

CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS CLUSTER GROUPING?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003239239-2

An Introduction to Total School Cluster Grouping

Marcia Gentry

Total School Cluster Grouping (TSCG) is a specific form of cluster grouping that has a research base, theoretical rationale, and model for successful implementation in elementary schools. The book focuses on why an elementary school staff would want to consider developing a TSCG program, followed by how to implement this model successfully in schools and effective strategies for differentiating in the cluster-grouped classroom. TSCG is guided by the following goals:

• • Provide full-time services to high-achieving and high-ability elementary students.
• • Help all students improve their academic achievement and educational self-efficacy.
• • Help teachers more effectively and efficiently meet the diverse needs of their students.
• • Weave gifted education and talent development “know-how” into the fabric of all educational practices in the school.
• • Improve representation of traditionally underserved students identified over time as above average and high achieving.

Prior to discussing the details of the TSCG Model, we will consider the model in the context of general cluster grouping and other ability grouping practices to provide you with information concerning what Total School Cluster Grouping is and what it is not.

GENERAL CLUSTER GROUPING

Cluster grouping is a widely recommended and often used strategy for meeting the needs of gifted, high-achieving students, and/or high-ability students in the general elementary classroom. (In the Total School Cluster Grouping Model, we identify students not as “gifted,” but rather by their current achievement level; hence the use of the term "high achieving.”) Its use has gained popularity because of the move toward inclusive education, budget cuts, and heterogeneous grouping policies that have eliminated programs for gifted students (Purcell, 1994; Renzulli, 2005b; National Association for Gifted Children & Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted, 2013). When viewed in the larger context of school reform and extending gifted education services to more students, cluster grouping can reach and benefit teachers and students beyond those in traditional gifted programs.

Many variations in definitions and applications of cluster grouping have been noted, but three nonnegotiable components consistently prevail (Gentry, 1999; Gentry, 2013). First, groups of students (varying in number from three to more than 10) identified as gifted, high-achieving, or high-ability are placed in classrooms with students of other achievement levels. Second, teachers differentiate curriculum and instruction for the high-achieving students in the clustered classroom. Third, successful teachers of the high-ability students have an interest or background in working with gifted students. These three components drive the success of cluster grouping and serve as the foundational touchstones for this book. In order to understand the philosophical and structural nuances of cluster grouping, one first needs to consider definitions, history, research, misconceptions, and theoretical underpinnings of such programming.

Cluster grouping is generally defined as placing a group of gifted, high-achieving, or high-ability students in an elementary classroom with other students. Many experts in the field of gifted education recommend this approach. They often suggest a specific number of high-ability children—say six to eight— to comprise the cluster, and they specify that the rest of the class should be heterogeneous. Further, many applications of cluster grouping are frequently only concerned with the identified high-ability children and what occurs in their designated classroom. Composition of and practices within the other classrooms are frequently ignored when cluster grouping is implemented, as the perceived purpose of cluster grouping is to serve the identified high-ability children.

However, because cluster grouping places the highest-achieving students in one classroom and affects the composition of all other classrooms, it affects all students and teachers in the school. Therefore, cluster grouping should not only be viewed as a program for gifted students, but also as a total school program. Through staff development, flexible placement, and grouping integrated with the regular school structure, cluster grouping offers a means for improving curriculum, instruction, and student achievement. Total School Cluster Grouping provides a system and framework for student placement and education that extends general cluster grouping and addresses the needs of all students and teachers.

The benefits of a thoughtfully implemented TSCG program include:

• • challenging high achievers by placing them together in one classroom, thus enabling new talents to emerge among students in the other classrooms and allowing them opportunities to become academic leaders;
• • increasing the ability of all teachers to meet the individual academic needs of their students by reducing the range of student achievement levels in all classrooms;
• • improving how teachers view their students with respect to ability and achievement;
• • improving student achievement among students from all achievement levels;
• • increasing the number of students identified as high achieving and decreasing the number of students identified as low achieving;
• • extending gifted education services to more students in the school and beyond those students formally identified as gifted and talented”;
• • bringing gifted education staff development, methods, and materials to all of the teachers in a school;
• • providing full-time placement and services for students identified as high achieving;
• • providing a seamless fit with a continuum of gifted and talented services for students;
• • helping teachers work together to plan effective differentiated curriculum and instruction for students at various levels of achievement and readiness;
• • engaging in ongoing assessment and identification of student strengths and abilities; and
• • offering students the opportunity to grow and develop by receiving services that match their current levels of achievement in various subjects.

THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS

In educational settings across the country, meeting the needs of highachieving students is a perpetual struggle. Staff, budget, and resource constraints frequently limit or exhaust the possibility of programming for the highest achievers. Further, identifying and serving gifted and potentially gifted students often take a back seat to other educational reforms and priorities. Cluster grouping is a widely recommended and popular strategy for meeting the needs of high-achieving, gifted, or high-ability students in elementary school classrooms (Balzer & Siewert, 1990; Brown, Archambault, Zhang, & Westberg, 1994; Coleman & Cross, 2005; Davis & Rimm, 2004; Gentry, 2013; Hoover, Sayler, & Feldhusen, 1993; Kulik, 2003; LaRose, 1986; Renzulli, 1994; Rogers, 2002), The practice has become popular in recent years due to heterogeneous grouping policies and financial cutbacks that have eliminated special programs for gifted and talented students (Purcell, 1994; Renzulli, 2005; National Association for Gifted Children & Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted, 2013). Research findings have showed improved achievement test scores of students of all achievement levels (Brulles, Peters, & Saunders, 2012; Brulles, Saunders, & Cohn, 2010; Gentry & Owen, 1999; Matthews, Ritchotte, & McBee, 2013; Pierce et al., 2011). District personnel across the country are searching for a way to improve student performance on tests, and cluster grouping has the potential to help them achieve this goal.

UNDERSTANDING CLUSTER GROUPING IN THE CONTEXT OF ABILITY GROUPING

Cluster grouping is an organizational model that should be discussed in the broader context of ability grouping. Thousands of studies have been conducted on the positive and negative effects of full-time ability grouping. Since 1982, at least 13 meta-analyses have been conducted on the topic of ability grouping with variable results (i.e., Goldring, 1990; Henderson, 1989; Kulik, 1985; Kulik & Kulik, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1992; Lou et al., 1996; Mosteller, Light, ...