Education Insights • 2024 • Volume 2 • Issue 1 3 Evolvements consistently occur with educational instructional practices. The first report of grouping students based on intellectual ability or academic achievement began in 1867 in St. Louis, Missouri; but it was, no doubt, a common practice in earlier times. Despite questionable research of its effectiveness and negative consequences associated with the practice, grouping of students for learning activities was a common practice up to the 1980s. Although the practice fell out of favor in the 1980s, demands from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law in 2002 played a major role in reopening the door to the academic separation of students. As a result, schools began to focus primarily on students who are just below the proficiency levels in reading and math due to the rise of accountability and research-based education requirements under NCLB. The major focus of NCLB was to close the achievement gap by providing students with a fair opportunity to receive high-quality education. Though the law held schools accountable for student learning, it became controversial due to penalties for schools that did not show improvement. The focus on standardized testing, which exhibits the false belief or notion that uniform instruction is fair, caused a shift from instruction that included Multiple Intelligences.9 The emphasis of preparing students for standardized testing; conventional views of the negative influence of ability grouping; and No Child Left Behind have impacted the educational lives of students.10 Standardized tests focus on linguistic and mathematical intelligence but usually do not measure interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, and bodily kinesthetic. At the beginning of the 21st century, schools began to focus heavily on assessment. This caused many teachers to shift to a style of teaching that focused on memorization due to their evaluations being tied to student success on standardized testing.11 The pressure felt by teachers led them to teach to assessment, which was against Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory. The autonomy in schools was reduced and failure to meet benchmarks led to the possibility of schools being shut down.12 In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced NCLB and ended the intense consequences attached to standardized testing.13 It differed from NCLB because it assigned states the accountability for testing. Although it did not fully remove yearly standardized tests, it reduced the 9 Hani Morgan and F. Reisman, “Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and His Ideas on Promoting Creativity,” in Celebrating Giants and Trailblazers: A-Z of Who’s Who in Creativity Research and Related Fields (London, UK: KIE Publications, 2021), 124-41. 10 Carol Tieso, “The Effects of Grouping Practices and Curricular Adjustments on Achievement,” Journal for the Education of the Gifted 29, no. 1 (2005): 60–89, https://doi.org/10.1177/016235320502900104. 11 Hani Morgan, “Relying on High-Stakes Standardized Tests to Evaluate Schools and Teachers: A Bad Idea,” The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 89, no. 2 (2016): 67–72, https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2016.1156628. 12 Alyson Klein, “No Child Left behind: An Overview,” Education Week. December 7, 2020, https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/no-child-left-behind-an-overview/2015/04. 13 Morgan, “Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory,” 121-41.
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