We, parents of Stamford Public School students, believe that the elimination of ability grouping at the middle school level will deprive children at every level of the focus and attention they need. The goal of Middle School Reform should be to challenge and educate all students and push them to work to their highest level of ability. This will not be the case if heterogeneous or even two groups are imposed at our Middle Schools. The teachers will be unable to challenge and push the top performing students and the students who are below grade level will not receive the attention they need. The two best performing elementary schools in Stamford have academic grouping; the Board should use the example in our own community of what is working. We support the concept of flexible grouping by subject and believe that students should be evaluated often so as not to be permanently tracked into one group. However, we urge you to reconsider the proposal for heterogeneous grouping. Institute a system that works for all levels of students. Do not put your higher achieving students at risk. We implore you to maintain four academic levels in order to ensure that ALL students in Stamford are provided the same opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

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