Culture shock: an inside study of multiage programs

School Administrator, March, 2005 by Stephen D. Palmer

"It's like we are in a battle zone.... The multiage teachers are free to do whatever. It's amazing what they can do and what we are not allowed to do."

--Teacher in a single-grade classroom

"Had I known what I know now, I wouldn't have done it (create a multiage program)."

--Elementary school principal

It is not until you challenge the system within a school that you realize how pervasive school culture really is. At my school, Shay Elementary School in Harbor Springs, Mich., several teachers approached me nine years ago interested in trying some innovative teaching practices. We held open meetings. We invited parents. We researched options and decided on a multiage program for 3rd through 5th graders.

As ideas firmed, so did resistance. Teachers who had remained uninvolved demanded a full staff meeting, which we convened. Frustrations were expressed fiercely. Most felt that that if one person was opposed to multiage instruction, it should be scrapped. Teachers wanted answers to questions that could not be answered with certainty. One teacher asked what would be expected of them if the multiage program turned out to be better than the single-grade approach.

Personal Examination

Through recent doctoral research, I examined the powerful force of school culture, as well as other factors, and the role it plays in schools with multiage classrooms. Combined with my personal experiences, I am certain of one thing: School-based innovations face an uphill battle.

Through my study, "The Relationship Between Multiage and Single-Grade Classrooms in a Michigan Elementary School," I found principals being sapped of time and energy confronting organizational issues and negative feelings by staff members, leaving them questioning the value of their efforts.

At Shay and virtually all the schools I studied, single-grade teachers believed the administration favored the multiage classes when it came to purchases including tables to replace individual desks and buying literature instead of textbooks. Furthermore, single-grade teachers felt like second-class citizens over scheduling issues, the need for common planning time, room selection and concerns related to student placements.

A Poisonous Environment

Most principals find great joy working with passionate teachers who attempt new things. Unfortunately, by supporting these innovators, principals find themselves in the difficult position of promoting one program, especially when getting it off the ground, without slighting the more traditional one.

One principal told me that during the first year of the multiage program, "Some people went all year without speaking to one another." It was fully three years later before she could "finally brag about the program." Even then, the principal admitted, she had to stress the positives of the single-grade program.

At other schools, single-grade teachers involved their teachers' associations, sometimes forcing delays in the implementation of the multiage programs. In one case, the association sponsored biased surveys in an attempt to remove the principal. One multiage teacher stated, "There were lots of threats, but nothing that they could really grieve ... (so) they started the surveys." Another teacher told me: "Some of (the single-grade teachers) thought that if you did something different, then it had to be in the contract. Multiage didn't have anything that was against the contract. There were just a lot of angry people."

Organizational Issues

Other issues negatively affected multiage classrooms. One school, dealing with a reduction of staff brought on by a drop in enrollment, lost one of their multiage teachers. With no one interested in teaching as a multiage team member, the program was likely to dissolve. The principal stated, "It's sad that we've finally reached peace with this and now we have to change."

At Shay we found ourselves in a similar position. To sustain our multiage program while keeping our class sizes balanced, we had to move from a three-year to a two-year program.

Curriculum issues also caused conflict. In addition to anger from single-grade teachers over the materials used in multiage classes, few fully understood the curricular sequences and instructional methods used in multiage classrooms. With the focus on individual students, cross-grade grouping and less traditional materials, multiage teaching methods did not fit the traditional mold. This raised questions in the minds of fellow teachers, parents and the multiage teachers themselves. How do grade-level expectations and benchmarks established by school boards, state departments of education and the federal government apply to multiage classrooms?

It is a sad commentary on education that our schools--which should be the most vibrant places for students to learn and thrive--struggle to grow, experiment and change as organizations. Schools should encourage innovation and provide the environment that enables teachers to do their best. That would provide a more exciting, dynamic future for education--not the culture of conflict and resistance I found in my study.