Differentiated Instruction for Whom? Within-Teacher Differences in Progress Monitoring and Instructional Adaptation Across Student Achievement Levels

Inclusive differentiated instruction should respond to the heterogeneity of all learners, yet classroom adaptations may be disproportionately directed toward students experiencing difficulty. This study examined within-teacher differences in two complementary components of differentiated instruction—progress monitoring and instructional adaptation—across low-, average-, and high-achieving student profiles. One hundred and seventeen French primary school teachers completed a questionnaire for each achievement profile. Exploratory factor analyses supported a preliminary nine-item two-factor structure that was highly similar across profiles (Tucker’s congruence = .96–1.00), with acceptable categorical omega coefficients (.71–.80). A linear mixed-effects model showed significant effects of differentiated-instruction component and achievement profile, as well as a significant interaction. Teachers reported more frequent progress monitoring and instructional adaptation for low-achieving students than for average- and high-achieving students; differences across achievement profiles were substantially larger for instructional adaptation. These findings suggest that differentiated instruction may function more strongly as remediation than as a response to the full range of learner heterogeneity, and highlight the importance of examining how assessment information is translated into instructional decisions.