Mixed Bag

By Debra Viadero

Robert Blair, the principal of Southside Primary School in Shelbyville, Kentucky, thinks his state's requirement that schools place young students of different ages in the same class is a good idea. He likes the family atmosphere multiage classes create in his K-3 school, the collaborative spirit it fosters in children and teachers, and the sense of security students get from staying with the same teacher for three years. "It's the only way to go with little children," he says.

But a good number of Blair's colleagues around the state feel otherwise. In one University of Kentucky study, roughly half of the primary teachers surveyed in the spring of 1995 said they would get rid of ungraded classrooms if it were up to them. Earlier this year, state lawmakers seemed to move in that direction. They approved a measure that effectively weakens the mandatory practice, which had been a cornerstone of Kentucky's sweeping school-improvement package. The policy shift allows local school councils to decide "the extent to which multiage groups are necessary" to meet the state's education goals.

Ironically, the dissension in Kentucky over multiage classrooms comes at a time when research is building a stronger case for the practice. "There's been a lot of research done, and some of it has been longitudinal, and you begin to get some clues in terms of: Are there gains and do they last?" says James Uphoff, a...