The Results of Multiage Grouping.

An Elementary Principal Documents the Outcomes of Meeting Students' Developmental Needs

Faced with an ever-increasing student retention rate in grades 1 through 5, the administration and faculty at Concrete Elementary School, a school with nearly 500 students in northwest Washington state, began exploring alternatives.

Over a two-year period, they discussed with educators in other school districts a variety of options, including transitional grade levels, rotating reading and math groups, and a "no-fail" policy.

After faculty members and several parents made four visits to the Surrey School District in British Columbia, the principal asked the district superintendent and school board to support the creation of a multiage or nongraded program at the elementary school. The board, recognizing the necessity for change, approved the plan with the understanding that a series of annual assessments be made to chart the progress of the children and the program.

The faculty participated in a series of staff development activities to prepare them for implementing a multiage program in September 1991. This process included workshops on cooperative learning, whole language, and flexible grouping. The faculty also participated in a weekend retreat focusing on decision-making strategies. Considerable time was spent designing basic school policies for implementation of the curriculum, student assessment, and creation of a new narrative report card.

A Stressful Start

One factor, however, was not considered seriously enough at the time. That was the problem of teacher burnout during the initial stages of the program. Within three months of the program's beginning, teachers were expressing a sense of exhaustion and frustration as they were expanding their classroom programs from a one-year to a two- and even three-year spread within a single classroom.

Lessons and topical units had to be redesigned to avoid repeating the same material for students the following year. Teachers spent their evenings and weekends developing these materials. Concurrently, teachers faced the reality of dealing with an increased age span among students in the same classroom.

Yet students and their parents were very receptive to the changes. The children appeared happy to become involved in various peer tutoring activities and the older students seemed to enjoy the new sense of leadership that they were expected to fulfill while working with their younger peers. The parents also recognized that the children appeared more relaxed with the removal of the "competitive" atmosphere often found in a single-graded classroom. Developing a sense of cooperation is imperative in a multiaged classroom.

Favorable Findings

Four years after implementing the program, results have been very encouraging. Student retention has not been entirely eliminated. Now only those students with serious emotional or social problems at the end of fifth grade are retained for a short period before moving on to the middle school. During the past three years only two students were retained at the elementary school for an additional two to three months.

Students in the lower grades experiencing academic, social, or other delays are transferred horizontally to another classroom where they have the opportunity to develop those needed skills.

Before we started multiage classrooms, 30 to 35 students were retained each year. Now only two or three students each year are ever brought before the school's retention review committee.

On other measures--student learning being foremost--the change to a multiage configuration at Concrete has been a success.

* Academic Performance.

A random sample of approximately 25 percent, or 120 of the school's 480 students, were tested each year to determine their grade level equivalency in reading and math. We used the Multi-Level Academic Survey Test as our end-of-year assessment tool.

During the past four years, students have shown a steady improvement in their scores. In comparison with grade equivalent norms, those students tested were 2.4 months ahead in reading and 4 months ahead in math. This is significant because in previous years children taking the schoolwide CAT and MAT assessments in reading and math have scored traditionally in the 35th to 45th percentile range.

Special education students have been integrated into the regular multiage classrooms on a full-time basis. As a result of using cooperative teaching strategies, these students are showing substantial academic and social success at their appropriate achievement levels.

* Student Attendance.

The average daily attendance for all students continued to climb over the first four years of the multiage program. In 1990-91, the school had an average daily attendance of 87 percent. During the 1994-95 school year, the attendance rate was 94 percent.

The significance of this improvement is the greater involvement of children in the learning process in school.

* Discipline Referrals.

Major discipline referrals to the principal by teachers, playground monitors, and others decreased significantly. During the 1990-91 school year, 306 major discipline incidents were reported. Over the next four years, the school averaged 177 referrals per year, a reduction of 42 percent.

Several factors brought about this change. In addition to developing the multiage program, the faculty strengthened the schoolwide Self Managers discipline program, the district added a part-time counselor to the school, and the school added a breakfast program. Also, through cooperative learning strategies, students began using refined social interaction skills to resolve problems in a more positive manner.

* Parent Support.

Parents seemed to understand and support the restructuring at the school.

Last year the school experienced a steady increase of parents working as classroom and library volunteers, accompanying classes on field trips, making special classroom presentations, and sponsoring scouting and other activities. Parents also were active on the school's site-based management committee. Parent participation at parent-teacher conferences and at the annual Back-to-School night continued to remain high.

Parents have supported the gradual transition from the single-graded to the multiage classroom configuration. Many parents attended the initial meetings set up to inform the community of the proposed changes. Thorough and serious questions were asked, and a number of parents journeyed to British Columbia with the faculty to observe the program in that province.

Without support of the parents from the beginning, it would have been very difficult to implement the significant changes.

* Teacher Turnover.

Despite the teacher burnout problem, only three teachers from a faculty of 28 chose to leave during the past four years. Two of them retired while the other teacher returned to graduate school for her master's degree. This has enabled the school to develop a stable and experienced teaching staff.

Teachers at Concrete Elementary appear to have a long-term interest in the education and welfare of children, largely because they have seen significant positive changes. In addition, teachers feel they have made valuable contributions to the development of a program in which they feel ownership.

Deserved Recognition

Since starting the multiage program, Concrete Elementary School has hosted hundreds of teachers and administrators from school districts throughout the Northwest interested in developing a similar program. Most have spent two or three hours visiting various classrooms while several groups spent several days exploring the details of the program.

At the same time, the school's administration and faculty have made numerous presentations at local and state meetings and conferences. They also have contributed articles to various newspapers, association publications, and publishing companies on the development of their program. In turn, the school and its faculty have been recognized for their achievements.

Don Jeanroy was principal of Concrete Elementary School in Concrete, Wash., for eight years, before accepting a new position overseas last fall.