Publications
Publications from the Best practice in grouping students research project.
Books | Journal articles | Reports and resources | Media coverage | Podcasts and live events
Books
- B, Francis., B, Taylor. and A. Tereshchenko. (2019). Reassessing ‘ability’ grouping: improving practice for equity and attainment’
Journal articles
- Attainment grouping in English secondary schools: A national survey of current practices. July 2020
- The impact of tracking by attainment on pupil self-confidence over time: demonstrating the accumulative impact of self-fulfilling prophecy. June 2020
- The misallocation of students to academic sets in maths: A study of secondary schools in England. June 2019
- Students' university aspirations and attainment grouping in secondary schools. January 2019
- 'The reality is complex': teachers' and school leaders' accounts and justifications of grouping practices in the English key stage 2 classroom. January 2019
- Teacher ‘quality’ and attainment grouping: The role of within-school teacher deployment in social and educational inequality. October 2018
- Nurturing learning or encouraging dependency? Teacher constructions of students in lower attainment groups in English secondary schools. March 2018
- Learners' attitudes to mixed-attainment grouping: examining the views of students of high, middle and low attainment. March 2018
- The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students' views about setting. January 2018
- Why is it Difficult for Schools to Establish Equitable Practices in Allocating Students to Attainment 'Sets'? January 2018
- Attainment Grouping as self-fulfilling prophesy? A mixed method exploration of self-confidence and set level among Year 7 students. October 2017
- Factors deterring schools from mixed attainment teaching practice. November 2016
- Exploring the relative lack of impact research on 'ability grouping' in England: a discourse analytic account. January 2016
Reports and resources
- Remote mathematics teaching during COVID-19: intentions, practices and equity. IOE: London, UK. September 2020
- Dos and Don'ts of Attainment Grouping. UCL Institute of Education: London, UK. 2018
- Developing Best Practice in Mixed Attainment English. UCL Institute of Education: London. 2018
- Best Practice in Mixed-Attainment Grouping Resource Book. 2015
Media coverage
- The importance of children’s academic self-perception. Tes. October 2020
- Have you got your attainment groupings right this term? Tes. September 2020
- How are maths departments responding to the challenge of blended learning? Schools Week. September 2020
- Opportunities to learn maths in lockdown were limited, research shows. UCL Institute of Education. September 2020
- Ability setting 'widens students' self-confidence gap'. Tes. June 2020
- Classes set by ability are hitting children’s self-confidence, study finds. Taylor & Francis Group. June 2020
- How schools can address social inequality. Tes. November 2019
- 4 questions you need to ask about ability grouping. Tes. September 2019
- Setting would not exist in an ideal world, says leading academic. Tes. March 2019
- Tes people of the year 2018: Becky Francis. Tes. December 2018
- Black students more likely to be incorrectly put in lower ability maths set, new research finds. Independent. September 2018
- Pupils ‘learn best together not in sets’. The Times. September 2018
- Low teacher expectations 'hindering' bottom-set pupils, research finds. Tes. March 2018
- We Need to Break the 'Class Ceiling' in UK Politics. VICE. March 2018
- Selective schooling might not be lifting anyone, study finds. The Sydney Morning Herald. March 2018
- Setting pupils 'incompatible with social justice'. Tes. February 2018
- What every teacher needs to know about setting. Tes. February 2018
- Schools are harming low-ability pupils' chances by teaching in sets, academics say. Tes. September 2017
- Mixed-ability classes barely exist in schools, researchers find. Schools Week. September 2017
- Student allocation to maths sets not always based on previous achievement. Best Evidence in Brief. January 2017
- Ask The Expert: Explaining socio-economic inequalities in educational attainment. Social Market Foundation. November 2016
- BCF-BERA Routledge Curriculum Journal Prize. British Educational Research Association (BERA). October 2016
- Why grouping students doesn't work. Tes. November 2015
- ‘The glaring gap in the English education system is social class’. The Guardian. October 2015
- Better together? Leader Magazine. February 2015
- Why the problem with ability grouping might be how it's done. Tes. February 2015
- Becky Francis to lead UCL Institute of Education. Tes. February 2015
- Teaching Matters More Than Setting. Sutton Trust. December 2014
- Setting by ability to be focus of major academic study. Tes. September 2014
Podcasts and live events
- Online Seminar: School contexts, grouping practices and social (in)equality - keynote at University of Helsinki 5 May 2021
- Attainment Grouping with Professor Becky Taylor. Teachers Education Review. September 2020
- Attainment grouping and maths: learning from mistakes. Research for the Real World. August 2020
- Lunch Hour Lecture: Impact of tracking school pupils by 'ability' on educational & social inequality. UCL Institute of Education. October 2019
- Examining the impact of ability grouping (Soundcloud website). UCL Institute of Education. September 2019
- Setting with Becky Francis. Tes Podagogy. February 2018