Academic grouping of students could be easily prejudiced

Social psychologists warn against the possibility that educational tracking or grouping students based on their achievement levels could turn unjust. Evaluators beware! You could be easily tempted inadvertently to assign an able low socioeconomic status (SES) pupil into a lower trackand offer a higher track more suitable for a high-SES pupil. The results of the study undertaken by the researchers of Université de Lausanne, Switzerlandis published in the journalPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

"Our research suggests that the selection required by the tracking system may lead evaluators to artificially create academic differences among students, as a function of their socio-economic status," says Anatolia Batruch one of four researchers associated with this report.

Batruch and colleagues want to further explore the expectations of the evaluators, which again could be colored by the "selective practice of tracking."