K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: ‘Multilevel classes’ aren’t equitable or excellent, say teachers.

Mixing high-achieving, average and low-achieving students in the same class was a noble experiment, writes Ryan Normandin, a high school math and physics teacher in Newton, Massachusetts. But it’s not working in math, science and foreign language classes. Everyone learns less, he writes. The students who need the most support are doing the worst.

Tracking isn’t perfect, he writes. It can be hard for students to move up a level. Students tend to segregate by achievement and by race and ethnicity: Black, Hispanic and low-income students disproportionately take lower-level classes.

Multilevel classes in English and history had some success, writes Normandin. Students opted in. Teachers got support. Then administrators expanded the model to math, science and world languages, subjects that build on previous learning.

After three years, nearly all teachers at Newton South High, where he chairs the Faculty Council, say the model is failing students and exhausting teachers.

The only people who seem truly surprised by outcomes like this one are the experts.