Parent perceptions, hesitant teachers, and scheduling challenges are all barriers to mixed-age learning, according to educators who have tried it. 

By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative

[ED NOTE: New Hampshire is nearing the end of a more than three-year effort to revamp the state’s core educational standards. When approved early next year, these new rules will steer the course of public education for at least the next decade. In this continuing series of stories, the Granite State New Collaborative will explore what those changes are, how they came about and what they mean for the future of public education in the Granite State.]

Last year Landon-Layne Laware, a then first-grader at Richards Elementary School in Newport, went to a third-grade classroom for math instruction and a second-grade class for reading. The simple switch not only let Landon-Layne practice more advanced academics, but it cut down on behavioral challenges he was having in school. 

“He went from having a behavioral plan, to getting (positive) notes home every day,” said his mother, Tonya Laware of Newport. 

As the state revamps its minimum standards for public school education, a document known as the 306s, it is continuing a push toward competency-based education, a philosophy that emphasizes individual learning paces and real-world applications of knowledge. 

Mixed-age learning is a critical part of that. In fact, in the most recent revision of the school minimum standards, the words “grade level” have been replaced by “learning level” to reflect the fact that some children, like Landon-Layne, will learn faster — or slower — than their same-aged peers. 

Students learning at their own pace and progressing when they show mastery of a skill are two of the seven tenets of competency based-education put forth by the Aurora Institute, the national leader in this approach to learning. New Hampshire educators who have tried to implement these approaches in their school say they serve students well, but are difficult to implement because of scheduling challenges, entrenched ideas about grade levels that parents and teachers have, and ideas about how schools should be run. 

When it comes to mixed-age learning, the million-dollar question is “how do we get there?” said William Furbush, superintendent of the Epping School District, which has received national attention for its competency-based approach.

The answer? 

“Slowly,” said Furbush, who estimates Epping is a decade away from a truly integrated approach to mixed-age learning. Grade levels are “in everything from the way we structure our schools to expectations of teachers and parents.”

Mixed-age learning in key subjects; socialization with same-age peers

There’s a common misunderstanding that, under competency-based education, young learners could be exposed to much older kids, said Furbush, who studied competency-based education in 15 schools as part of his unfinished dissertation work. 

In reality, children spend the majority of the school day with their same-aged peers. 

“This is very different. It’s not like advancing a child who is 5, and putting them around 7-year-olds all day long,” he said. 

Instead, students learn with kids of different ages for critical subjects — most often math and reading — while returning to their peers for recess, social time, and extracurriculars. 

That’s the approach at Richards Elementary School in Newport, where Landon-Layne goes to school. The school, led by a former principal, implemented what it calls vertical learning teams to address gaps in learning after COVID, said the current principal, Robert Clark. 

Students were still assigned home rooms with their peers, but the school is divided into two learning teams: one for grades 1 through 3, and one for grades 3 through 5. Students in these teams learned math and reading with other kids who are at a similar learning level, regardless of age. 

As students mastered one concept, such as sight words, they could move into another group of students to tackle the next concept, Clark said. 

“It’s a fluid process. We’re continuing to look at the data and their progress, and make adjustments,” he said.

In Newport, where students are more likely than other Granite State students to test below grade level in math and reading, according to state data, the learning teams focused on making sure students didn’t move on without fully understanding a concept.

“The purpose of this is to work to make sure students aren’t moving along without filling those gaps,” Clark said. 

At first, the program was successful, according to Cindy Couitt, a third grade teacher at the school. 

“Kids who hadn’t been making a lot of progress were now moving forward in those skills,” she said. Many students, like Landon-Layne, were having fewer behavioral challenges, and communication within the school continues to be strengthened by teachers working more closely together, Clark said. 

Disagreements over best practices, sustainability

When former principal Patrice Glancey Brown left Richards Elementary, there was little guidance for the vertical learning teams, Couitt said. Although the school, under Clark’s leadership, continued the teams, the approach was diluted, Couitt said. 

“It’s my opinion — and this is just my opinion — that we are no longer doing a true (vertical learning) model,” she said. 

That is a common criticism of competency-based learning, experts say. Because the concept is unfamiliar, the term can be applied to practices that aren’t truly rooted in a competency-based approach. In addition, pilot programs in the state show that efforts to implement competency-based education often falter when school leadership changes.

‘New Hampshire schools experimented with a radical approach to competency-based education. The failure of the pilot mirrors current concerns over revisions in state minimum standards.’

At Richards Elementary, students still receive instruction during vertical learning time, but they also are taught the core curriculum for their grade level, whether or not they’re ready for it, Couitt said. Mixed-age sessions function more as review time, she said. (Clark clarified that students have two math and two reading sessions: one in a mixed-age setting and one with their grade-level peers.)

“It’s not the true model” of vertical learning, Couitt said.

The result, she feels, has been a stagnation of learning. “There’s some progress, at a slower pace.”

Under the prior model, students were graded for the level they were learning at, she added. For example, Landon-Layne would have been evaluated on third-grade math, even though he was in first grade. However, now students are evaluated based on their grade level, giving a less robust picture of where they truly are, Couitt said. 

Furbush, of Epping, said evaluating students at grade level when it doesn’t align with their learning level serves no one. 

“That’s a real detriment to our system .…” he said. “We’re really not having honest conversations about where that child is.”

Scheduling and culture challenges

Sustainability is just one of the challenges around mixed-age learning, said Furbush, who has taken steps to facilitate more of the approach in Epping. 

One of the biggest challenges is logistical: the schedule. For mixed-age learning to work, students in different grades need to have learning periods that start and stop at the same time. Epping recently addressed that by putting the middle and high schools on the same schedule, using 80-minute teaching blocks. 

“Now, that’s changed overnight,” Furbush said, allowing movement of teachers and students between the schools. 

Making the adjustment required persuading stakeholders — including the school board, teachers and parents — that the change was valuable. That community involvement and understanding is critical, Furbush said. 

In Newport, administrators and teachers made an effort to teach parents about the vertical learning teams. At first, many parents weren’t comfortable with them because the approach looked different from the schooling they were familiar with. 

Some teachers have a similar hesitation, Couitt said.

“There was a lot of pushback on (vertical learning) because there are a lot of people who believe the model for teaching should stay and teach the core (curriculum) in your room,” she said.

Mixed-age learning can be more efficient for teachers, Furbush said, but “initially they think it's a lot more work,” which can lead to wariness about the model. 

Another barrier involves parents’ expectations. 

“Parents are all accepting of a child going up,” Furbush said. “The other page we need to think about is where there’s a third-grader who’s at a first-grade math level.”

Education about competency-based education can help with this too, he said. In an ideal world, the different learning levels wouldn’t be numbered, but named for colors or local landmarks, so students and parents didn’t feel shame when a student worked below their age-indicated grade level. 

“Right now, we use language like above or below grade level. That has judgment on it, both good and bad,” Furbush said. 

Adults readily accept that, as students learn to swim or do karate, they move through competencies unrelated to their grades, he said. Eventually, Furbush would like to see that same approach in schools. 

“I would like to see even more collapse of that grade-level model,” he said. “…What we’re really trying to create is that small-group instruction to meet their needs.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.