However, that time is not while a child is in the middle school. Too many other changes taking place. Too much development going on . Tracking in the middle school does more harm than good. I'm fairly new around here, and am askingbecause I don't know - though it seems to me that the terms are being used interchangably.
Tracking is a particular form of grouping.
In my opinion, there is no justification for tracking. I think and believe that to group or not to group is not the issue. What we ought to be about is placement for access to the the coursework, materials and people needed for student learning progress. Here we go on the tracking issue again. There is a multitude of research on the subject of tracking.