The slowdown of the multiage classroom: what was once a popular approach has fallen victim to NCLB demands for grade-level testing

School Administrator, March, 2005 by Priscilla Pardini

In 1991, the Oregon State Legislature went so far as to call for a feasibility study on a mandated, ungraded primary program but never put such an approach in place.

Inconsistent Findings

Research conducted during the 1980s and early 1990s helped validate the multiage approach. When it came to the impact of multiage grouping on student achievement, study results were mixed. While some found students in multiage classrooms performed better on standardized achievement tests, others found students in single-grade classes performed better. Researchers speculated the inconsistency was due in part to varying definitions of multiage education. More than half of the studies found no statistically significant difference between the two approaches.

Lisa Gross, spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education, says the overall accountability index for 4th graders increased by 13 points between 1993, when the ungraded primary programs were put in place, and 1998. The index is based in part on performance-based achievement tests. Gains also were recorded in seven content areas.

But if the link between multiage education and improved student achievement was found to be less than definitive, the approach was shown to foster gains in other areas. Students in multiage settings were found to have higher self-esteem, more positive self-concepts, less anti-social behavior and better attitudes toward school than their peers in single-grade classes.

Kinsey, the Governors State University professor, is encouraged by those findings and believes even if studies haven't yet conclusively linked multiage education with immediate increases in academic achievement, other long-term research may. "Multiage pays particular attention to what's happening to children emotionally and socially," she says. "And if it's encouraging cooperation and promoting leadership and confidence, it's also motivating children to learn."

Kentucky's Disappointment

Despite the promise multiage education seemed to offer, however, the movement has definitely lost steam. A review of the literature reveals very little now being written about--and virtually no research being done on--the subject. Grant reports that a national conference on multiage education today would likely draw only 600 or 700 people. Because no central body tracks the number of multiage classes in operation, it's impossible to quantify the decline. Yet even Stone admits, "There's no doubt that the rate of growth has slowed."

The movement's biggest blow likely came in 1998 when Kentucky relaxed its ungraded primary mandate in response to requests from teachers and administrators who wanted more flexibility in how they grouped children. Dodson says that as a result of the move, about half of Kentucky's public elementary schools have abandoned full-time multiage programs.

Rodgers, now deputy executive director of the Council for Chief State School Officers, says she was "distraught" over the decision and argued against it. "Multiage education is such a sound educational practice. And there were schools in Kentucky that were just terrific models. People were using developmentally appropriate practices to help kids move along at their own pace."