Children's reasoning about ability differences

In the United States, over 70% of students attend schools that group students by their presumed abilities. What do children think distinguishes students in high-ability groups from students in low-ability groups? In the present work, we examine how 6- to 11-year-old children explain ability differences between ability-grouped students. In Study 1 (N = 98; 50 girls; predominantly white), children's self-generated explanations predominantly cited internal (i.e., located within students) rather than external (i.e., located within students' environments) causes, and children expressed more agreement with experimenter-provided explanations that cited internal (vs. external) causes as well. Study 2 (N = 159; 79 girls; predominantly white) revealed that children who more strongly endorsed explanations appealing to stable internal causes had lower expectations for the upward mobility of students in low-ability groups. These findings provide insight into how children explain ability differences in the context of common, school-sanctioned groups, and how these explanations may guide children's beliefs about others' capacity to improve.