The bell rang. Jada sighed, slowly moved from the lockers where she had been leaning, and headed down the hall to her chemistry class. Honors Chemistry! Jada couldn't believe that her mom was making her take the class because Jada's counselor had said that she had real talent in science.

Jada had to admit that she liked science and that last year's class was a breeze, but come on, Honors Chemistry? She wouldn't know anyone in the class, and they probably wouldn't know anyone like her.

The good thing about being late is that it shortened the period a bit. The bad thing is that it made her seem like she was making a grand entrance. To make matters worse, the only two seats left in class were at the lab table at the very front of the room.

Jada held her breath and walked in. Everyone's eyes were on her. She just knew it. They were staring at her coal black hair（freshly dyed）, her black lipstick, her black fingernail polish, and her thrift-store black leather jacket. All she saw were polo shirts and khaki pants.

This can't get any worse, Jada thought. But at least she didn't get shouted at by the teacher. He was too busy talking to a new kid. A HUGE new kid, maybe 6'4". He had to weigh at least 250 pounds. A football player, probably. She hated football players. They thought they were so great. That group of jocks that hung out by the cafeteria always made fun of her.

The new kid made his way over to her table with his head down. He had to squeeze into the seat, and his legs wouldn't fit under the lab table. He shot Jada a glance and turned red.

Mr. Martin, the teacher, began class with this announcement: "Okay, everyone. I know most of you know each other from last year's Honors Physical Science class." Jada sighed loudly. "But just take a minute and introduce yourself to the person sitting at your table. You'll be partners. You'll be working closely together all year."

Jada rolled her eyes and stared straight ahead. Then she heard a surprisingly soft voice from next to her. "Hi, I'm Robert. I'm new here."…

A report released this month found that grouping children by ability is on the rise again—teaching students in groups of similar ability has improved achievements for fast and slow learners alike—and who wouldn’t want bright kids to be able to move ahead?

But for most kids, labels (标签) applied early in life tend to stick, even if they are wrong.

Sorting school children by ability has long been controversial. In some countries, especially in Asia, school-wide tracking (分流) remains normal. Children are tested and placed in different schools that direct them toward professional or vocational careers. Movement between the tracks is rare.

School-wide tracking decreased in US schools in the 1960s and 1970s. It never died out, though. Sorting students into separate tracks for math at about junior high school age continues to be common, and other forms of tracking persist as well.

Unlike tracking, which means sorting students into separate classrooms, ability grouping happens within classrooms. When done according to the latest research, it has proven to promote achievements. Ability grouping is changeable and temporary. Within classrooms, students might be divided into different learning groups dealing with materials of different levels. Any students who master concepts can move upward between groups, and the student groups might look different from subject to subject and unit to unit. For instance, a student who stands out in language arts might be at an average or slower level in math. A student who flies through multiplication tables might need extra help with fractions. Students who lag in reading can be pulled out of the classroom in small groups for practice with a tutor until their reading improves.

Research shows ability grouping within classes has more positive benefits than tracking. However, that must be weighed against the challenges involved. In many regular classrooms, the differences between student ability levels are very big. That presents challenges for teachers and low-performing students to constantly compare themselves with students who seem to fly through school with ease.

The rigid ability groups and tracking of the past are still with us in many schools. Likely, labels are applied with more caution than in the bad old days when some teachers gave reading groups not-so-secret code names like “Bluebirds”, “Robins”, “Crows” and “Buzzards”. But kids still know.

“ Go ahead,” I told Linda. “ Pick up the rock, and see what’s under it.”

Her 4-year-old arms struggled with the rock buried in the stream bed. Her eyes got big as she examined the worms after their nest was uncovered. She watched quietly, as they walked past her foot. She gently put the rock back and said,” Are there worms under all the rocks?”

This wasn’t school — it was a nature-based summer camp in New York’s Hudson Valley that I ran when I was 17. When I turned the kids over to their parents at the end of the day, they were tired, inspired by nature and knowledge.

Finland’s “forest kindergartens” use the natural world as a jumping off point for early academic instruction to make them enjoy learning. Finland is following in the footsteps of other European countries including Denmark, where outdoor education has been common for many years.

In the Finnish program, kids spend four days of a week, from 8:30a.m. to 6:30p.m., outside with a teacher. Built into the program is quite a bit of playtime. Kids get a lot of exercise and lesson plans are freely made so teachers can use what’s at hand and in season in their lessons.

While all this sounds less strict than a classroom-based kindergarten program, the results show that these types of programs have better results for overall physical health as well as academic performance and social development. But aren’t the kids who do this coming from wealthy, educated communities — so, of course they score better on tests? In fact, the greatest gains from spending time outdoors can be found in kids who are coming from less advantageous background. At a school near Atlanta, where kids spend 30 percent of their day outside, students have improved scores more than students from any other school in their area, and most of the kids there come from poor families.