Students unfairly placed in classrooms

High school teachers are placing higher performing students between underperforming students resulting in overall lower achievement grades.

Just as, birds with the same feather, flock together, students who are academically similar, usually sit together in a class. Forcing higher performing students to sit by others who are underperforming, is like removing them from their natural habitats and depriving them of the drive to succeed. This placement tactic is not fair. A student who is able to stay on task should not be made to sit by someone who cannot focus and gets side tracked often. It is not fair to the students who want to actually learn, if they are being surrounded by others who do not pay attention.

A test named EST was done in 2014 show when a student who is more diligent in his or her school work sits by someone who has less interest in school, the test scores of the student who is more academically inclined, falls.

However teachers are taking the easy way out and placing students who are more focused on school work and are soft spoken by people who are more boisterous in school. They hope the quiet student will act as a buffer between the talkative student so there will less disturbances.

Students should be allowed to pick their own seats, this way the students are satisfied by where they are sitting. If a problem does arise from this however, a teacher should just change the seating arrangements. It should not be a drastic change where a student is placed with other students who are not as academically inclined.

Putting students who are focused in school by students who are easily distracted is not fair. Choosing seats should be a process all classrooms should adopt.