Achievement Development in Special Classes of Grammar School in the First Year after the Transition to Secondary School

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze how ability grouping within one Gymnasium influences the development of educational achievement. Achievement in mathematics and reading of 125 students of one Gymnasium with three standard classes, one class with a bilingual, and one class with a mathematics/science profile was tested at the beginning and at the end of the fifth grade. Both classes with a special profile showed better performances in mathematics than the standard classes at the first measurement point. Regression analyses showed that the mathematics/ science class had a positive influence on both mathematic and reading performance development. The bilingual class had a positive influence on the performance development in reading but a negative influence on the performance development in mathematics when compared with the standard classes.