U-46 sees increase in split-grade classes
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Students in Elgin-area schools are getting used to seeing not only more kids in each classroom but also kids from different grades.
Because of budget cuts, this year one-fifth of all classrooms in Elgin Area School District U-46 have students from more than one grade.
There are 177 multi-grade classrooms this year, an increase of 19 classrooms from last year, when about 16 percent of classrooms held multiple grades.
While the challenges multi-grade classrooms present to teachers are undeniable, data from the 2009-10 school year show that students in those classrooms fared about the same as their peers, according to U-46 officials.
“Our children are achieving as well academically in a multi-grade classroom as they are in a single-grade classroom,” said Deborah Devine, a U-46 coach who works with teachers in multi-grade classrooms.
For example, students in classrooms that mixed third- and fourth-graders improved their reading scores last year on the Measures of Academic Progress test by 9.9 points on average, compared to 9.4 points for students in a class with just third-graders. The difference was not statistically significant, officials said.
Research cited by U-46 officials, however, shows that teachers in multi-grade classrooms often complain about inadequate preparation and teaching materials.
To address these concerns, U-46 offers two- to three-day voluntary training for multi-grade teachers during the summer as well as coaching during the school year.
Much of the training focuses on showing teachers how to organize their classroom so one group of students can learn independently while another group receives instruction at a different level.
“They're literally teaching completely different curriculum at the same time,” said Kathy Castle, president of the Elgin teachers union. “That has to been done through individualized instruction. It's much more difficult to make that a single lesson.”
Multi-grade challenges may only increase in coming years as U-46 schools face continued challenges in state funding and work to erase a deficit pegged at $40 million at the beginning of this school year.
