ABSTRACT
The introduction of mixed-ability classes into secondary schools was seen by many as a logical extension of that reorganization. The work of David Hargreaves and Colin Lacey gave strong support to the arguments. Indicating, as it did, that there emerged in the lower streams of the upper reaches of secondary schools delinquent sub-cultures bound together by hostility to the school and disaffection from its values. In view of this range of fundamental principles and of the consequent ambitions teachers and headteachers had when implementing mixed-ability groupings, it is not surprising that many different versions of it emerged in practice, as stress was placed on different aspects of its underlying philosophy. All the many case studies which emerged during the 1970s of mixed-ability teaching in secondary schools made positive assertions of its social effectiveness. As people have seen, it could be, and often has been, confined to the first two or three years of secondary schooling, to the lower school.
