... a great range of phenomena from the allocation of pupils to different classes, subjects, sets, streams, bands or tracks within the same school, to the different treatment of pupils in the same classroom.' (Smith 1981). Differentiation by ability grouping has had a long history as a key practice within UK schools. The definition above points to a number of methods which have been employed in education over more than half a century. 'Streaming' was the favoured practice of the 1950's, and continued to dominate into the 1960's spreading beyond the realms of the secondary school into junior schools. Equality in education became the dominating policy of the 1970's and 1980's and thus a surge in the adoption of a mixed-ability grouping strategy was seen at this time. Ability grouping reappeared in the 1990's with government policy stating 'setting' as a preferable approach (Boaler et al 2000). 'Unless a school can demonstrate ...

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