Multiage

1
Multiage

• History

www.octhebeach.com/ museum/images
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17th 19th centuries

• Multiage dates back to the one room schoolhouse
• Students of all ages were taught by the same
  teacher for years
• Exposed students to content before they were
  really taught it
• Less formal
• Friendly, respectful relationships developed
  between teacher and student
• Family atmosphere

www.museumgreatplains.org/ children
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17th 19th centuries - cont

• Economic and geographic necessity
• Individualized instruction
• Independent study
• Cross-age tutoring
• Peer tutoring
• Flexible scheduling

4
1843

• Horace Mann (Secretary of the Massachusetts Board
  of Education) traveled to Prussia
• U.S. first exposure to schools with different
  grade levels
• U.S. on the cusp of the efficient Industrial Age,
  was interested
• Graded schools based on successful manufacturing
  methodologies, i.e. tardiness, staying on task,
  etc.

www.pbs.org
5
1848

• First graded school, Quincy Grammar School

6
1890

• C.W. Eliot (President of Harvard University)
  said that the grouping together of children
  whose capacities are widely different was
  flying in the face of nature and the worst
  feature of the American school

www.oconnells.com
7
1899

• John Dewey criticizes graded schools approach for
  its mechanical massing of children and its
  uniform curriculum and methods, however the
  graded system prevails

www.columbia.edu
8
1909-1918

• Montessori method supplanted graded system in the
  U.S. for a short time

www.montessori-house.com
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Early 1900s

• Multiage no longer common

Multiage
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1960s

• Multiage reemerges
• Parental negative reactions to multiage
  classrooms
• Teachers didnt agree on a teaching method
• Teachers didnt receive proper training
• Multiage introduced to save money, not because of
  philosophical support

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1970s

• Multiage wanes and we return to traditional grade
  method
• Multiage ? Traditional

12
1980s

• Improvement due to graded schools, fuels a back
  to basics movement

Back to Basics
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1990

• Kentucky Education Reform Act
• Mandates multiage classrooms for all primary
  grades
• Mississippi and Oregon join in

http//wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/images/usa/kentuc
ky.jpg
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1994

• National Commission on Education states
• American students must have more time for
  education
• We need to use time in new, different and better
  ways
• Grouping children by age should become a thing
  of the past

15
2001

• No Child Left Behind

upload.wikimedia.org
16
2005

• Kentucky Education Reform Act -
• The scope of the multiage initiative reduced by
  half due to NCLB

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References

• Pardini, Priscilla. (March, 2005). The Slowdown
  of the Multiage Classroom. The School
  Administrator.
• Bingham, A. (1995). Exploring the multiage
  classroom. York, ME Stenhouse Publishers.
• Stone , S. (1996). Creating the multiage
  classroom. Parsippany, NJ Good Year Books.