Split Classes - What's Your Experience?
From reader Seeking Feedback:
I'd love to see a thread sometime on split classes (2 or more grades in one classroom) in elementary school. What are parents opinions? Do they work? Are they better, and if so what are the advantages? Or- is the teacher having to cover too much ground and are kids missing some content?
With the capacity crunch and the SEA contract on overages, it seems that SPS is putting more pressure on schools to have split classrooms, and I wonder if it's working.
(There are some answers already at the Friday Open Thread. Thanks to those readers for jumping right in.)
I'd love to see a thread sometime on split classes (2 or more grades in one classroom) in elementary school. What are parents opinions? Do they work? Are they better, and if so what are the advantages? Or- is the teacher having to cover too much ground and are kids missing some content?
With the capacity crunch and the SEA contract on overages, it seems that SPS is putting more pressure on schools to have split classrooms, and I wonder if it's working.
(There are some answers already at the Friday Open Thread. Thanks to those readers for jumping right in.)
Comments
Jane
SolvayGirl
Split classes were sometimes unavoidable at Lowell (APP) because of the size and nature of the program, but they were never desired. In fact, classroom sizes were sometimes significantly mismatched to avoid them.
The problems are obvious: teachers need to work with a much wider range of needs and curricular materials, students can potentially have a less-than-ideal experience with fewer age peers, potential repeat of material for some kids and missed material for others, etc. If you have a wonderful and organized teacher, they can work, and there can even be a few benefits around the edges for some students, but it's never ideal. Ask the teachers.
I don't want to confuse this with programs that are actually designed around multi-age classrooms, such as Montessori, which can work quite well for some kids. But ad-hoc split grade classrooms are almost always related to enrollment numbers in the building, unplanned, and unfortunate. You may hear anecdotal stories of good experiences (I have one myself), but they usually revolve around outstanding teachers, and could have been even better experiences if they had been single grade.
weighing in
BF Day parent
My daughter was in a 2/3 split as a 3rd Grader. The obvious downside to being a child in the higher grade level of a split: social stigma. I know some of the 3rd Graders were teased initially, and I also know (some) other parents thought the 3rd Graders in the class were the "slow learners." In reality the situation was quite different. Most of the 3rd Graders were independent learners, and I assume they were chosen because of this. My kid does well at school (90s in her MAP tests, above grade level for reading, so we were surprised she ended up being in this particular split.) Social stigma is a tough one though, and it took a few months for everyone to adjust. Her teacher was great, and did a very good job of differentiating. It was also a smaller-sized class than others in the school, so that was a huge plus. My daughter ended up having a good year, but I'm still a bigger fan of non-split classes.
Seattle NW Parent
It's definitely more work for the teacher - but my child's teacher seems up for the job.
Jane
I think the intention was to facilitate differentiated teaching, and I know at first the Montessori-trained teachers acted as mentors for the multi-age stuff, but in the end they told me all the teachers were learning from each other. I think it wasn't so much the multi-age or not that made the school successful. It was the teachers coming up with a plan and following it over several years until they all worked out all the kinks together.
As the district increases class size but doesn't add additional support (interns/student teachers/etc) into the room, more kids are going to be ignored and fall behind while the teacher focuses on other groups. As the students get older, and can work independently, it might not matter as much, but in the earliest grades it's really important that the class progress together, as much as possible.
Cap the class size at 18-20, mixed ages might be fine; wit class sizes approaching 30 students, a single teacher is going to have to make some tough choices.
stu
Obviously, some subjects aren't suitable for a multi-age approach (I'm thinking here of math in particular: it really should be tied to ability, not age), but HAVING multiple ages in one's classroom allows the kind of differentiation that might otherwise come with a stigma attached.
The short answer is: it can work in particular settings with students and families who buy into the idea. I don't think it can be imposed against resistance very effectively.
Gen Ed Mom
I think how well it works depends on the child and the teacher. For many years, two teachers team-taught a 3/4/5 split, and it was the most sought-after assignment in the school. My older daughter definitely benefited from splits, where the teacher had a chance to get to know her better. Because of a weird bump in enrollment, my younger daughter was the younger grade in a series of splits (1 in 1/2, then 2 in 2/3, etc.). That was a little harder, although she still did OK. I think some of the other kids in those classes had more trouble.
Montlake exclusively uses split classes. Salmon Bay exclusively uses split classes for grades 7/8. Graham Hill and Bagley extensively use split grades. These are all very popular effective schools in their regions. Most high schools also have students of multiple grades attending.
-reader
-reader
Gen Ed Mom
Westside
Diane
From Experience
I agree that multi-grade classes that are intentionally designed can work very well. Classes made up of "left-over" kids are pretty hard to make work, and require a very talented teacher. Unfortunately, those classes seem too often to get "left-over" teachers as well.