A phenomenon in which a characteristic is maintained, in terms of relative rank, over a long time span or even a lifetime.
In education, the practice of placing students according to their ability level in relatively homogeneous classes.
Grouping students into classes based on assessments of their ability and past performance. In an elementary or secondary school, for example, the result might be an honors or “fast-track” class, a series of middle-range classes for students of descending ability (the number depending on the size of the school), and a “slow-learner” class. Tracking goes under a variety of names, including ability grouping, streaming, banding, and homogeneous grouping. The main alternative, in which all students are grouped together in an early school- house style, no matter how wide their range of achievement or ability, is called heterogeneous grouping.