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Children at the Center: Implementing the Multiage Classroom
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Introduction
Teachers and administrators from country schools to urban classrooms are hungry for information on multiage education. I see it in the numerous calls I receive as a rural education specialist at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon.
These requests come on the heels of numerous research reports emphasizing whole language, cooperative learning, heterogeneous grouping, and developmentally appropriate practice, all of which have implications for multiage learning environments. Moreover, the requests coincide with legislatively mandated educational reform initiatives in Kentucky, Oregon, and Mississippi that also emphasize multiage organization (Lodish 1992). This legislative action has caused teachers, administrators, and parents to ask whether this is simply another educational trend or a lasting educational reform. Despite such concerns, educators throughout the nation are implementing multiage classrooms and schools with insufficient forethought, planning, and participation of key stakeholders. I can think of no better way to destroy a potentially sound educational practice.
Unfortunately, promising practices and innovations are often implemented for the wrong reasons or with little understanding of key factors such as teacher readiness, staff ownership, parental involvement, and collaborative planning. Each of those issues must be considered if the change effort is to have a positive and lasting effect on students and teachers.
This need for caution seems obvious but is often overlooked by well-intentioned administrators who fail to understand how unsettling change may be for teachers who have little or no control over it. In that regard, implementing multiage instructional practices raises important questions that should be asked and understood before the journey begins:
- Why would a school staff implement a multiage program, especially when evidence from the field suggests multiage classrooms, at least initially, are more work?
- What roles should teachers play in planning and implementation, and what knowledge do they need to effectively participate?
- What type of school or organizational climate is likely to facilitate successful multiage implementation?
- How should parents and the community be involved in deciding, planning, and implementing the change effort?
- What does leadership look like in successful multiage implementation?
- Are there factors associated with implementation of successful multiage programs that can be generalized to other settings?
These six questions provide the framework for this implementation guide. The answers to these questions are complex and can be found in the ideas, stories, and experiences of educators who have struggled to implement multiage practices, as well as among the researchers who have studied the multiage concept for years.
There is frequent confusion around the meaning of multiage among both practitioners and researchers. Such terms as nongraded, ungraded, multigrade, vertical grouping, blends, and multiage are being used, in many cases, interchangeably (Katz 1988, Miller 1989).
Such semantic confusion creates misunderstandings that may damage prospects for successful implementation. For this guide, I use multiage to mean two or more grade levels that have been intentionally placed together to improve learning. The child's developmental needs, regardless of grade-level curriculum or administrative placement, stand out as a key defining characteristic of the multiage concept. Ideally, there is a blurring of grade- and age-level distinctions as students blend into a caring community of learners.
The educators interviewed for this guide aspire to this ideal. I hope you find their experiences and ideas enlightening and meaningful. Above all, I hope you find this guide useful as you embark on your journey toward a multiage classroom or school.
Pricing and Availability
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