Executive Summary of Multiage Learning Opportunities

Multiage Learning: Redesigning and Reimagining Education

Multiage learning can be defined as the placement and realignment of
students from across grades and ages into classrooms based on the careful
consideration and triangulation of student learning readiness, student learning goals
and student interest. Multiage learning researchers Bob Johnson and Jim Grant
describe fostering this type of learning environment by explaining, A multiage
continuous progress program is, in practical terms, an ideal. It is a goal toward
which you travel bit by bit turning theory into day-to-day success. But it involves
great changes for everyone involved. It requires time, patience, courage and
commitment. This proposal provides an in depth analysis of multiage learning and
how implementing a multiage continuous progress program at the upper
elementary level can provide students with unique opportunities to expand their
horizons and grow as both learners and individuals.
Multiage Grouping for 21st Century Teaching and Learning
For well over a century, we have grouped young minds together by tracking
them into grade levels with peers of the exact same age. This assembly line model
of education processes students through the acquisition of essential knowledge
rather than fostering the dynamic and mercurial learning environment that children
of the 21st century will require to be considered college and career ready. One key
axiom of our multiage continuous progress program is that it recognizes that
individual students have individual learning needs. Rather than suppress creative
and innovative thinking by placing predetermined content limitations on students,
our multiage continuous progress program seeks to empower students across
multiple grade/age levels to communicate and collaborate with one another in a
concerted effort to think critically and transfer essential skills and process to all
facets of learning. Furthermore, our model of multiage continuous learning seeks to
balance the demands of academically rigorous standards with the social and
emotional domain of the whole child by focusing on students interests and passions
as a springboard to learning.
The Time to Act is Now
Both the world at large and the field of education are rapidly evolving to meet
the needs of an increasingly complex and competitive society. To prepare students
for this uncertain future, our plan centers on the use of inquiry, project and/or
service based learning to teach students to be adaptable, self-directed, resilient,
productive, accountable and responsible. To accomplish these lofty goals, our plan
utilizes the skills and processes found in each of the content areas as well as the
Common Core anchor standards to provide the opportunity for learning across age
level bands and across academic disciplines. Initially through a Genius Hour format
and then as a fully integrated experience,, upper elementary students will be fully

engaged in taking control of their learning and developing habits of mind and
practice that will serve them well far beyond the reaches of our classroom walls.