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A Colorado school district does away with grade levels

To overcome low test scores and a high dropout rate, the district is implementing radical reforms.

from the February 10, 2009 edition

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In Nikolaus Namba's first-grade classroom, that means that his students have worked over the year to create – and refine – a classroom code of conduct (which includes items such as "don't hit people" and "we will not play with hair" written in childish handwriting on Post-it notes mounted in the front of the class) and goals of the week. Students use what Mr. Namba calls "power voting" with the Post-its to get a voice in these and other classroom decisions – hoping, ultimately, to give them a greater sense of independence and ownership of their learning.

Namba says it's been somewhat tough to implement the new approach halfway – still in a traditional first-grade classroom with all ability levels and learning speeds mixed in – but he says that even a few months into the year, he's come to appreciate it.

"We have discussions about what is a good student, and what does a good teacher look like," he says, noting that it's easier now to talk to students about work that comes up short, for instance, of where they thought they were, and says that everyone is aware of each specific thing they need to learn.

On one recent day, that included a quiz on telling time. Namba has the student who received the only perfect score help some of the others. "Cristian knows how to tell time," he says. "He's available to help others."

Next year, Namba hopes to really dive into the reforms, and is looking forward to being able to work with students all at a similar level. "The goal is that they'll accomplish things faster," he says. Moving up without truly understanding what they learn "is what creates the cracks in the foundation later on."

But if Namba and other teachers who have bought into the idea in a big way have high hopes for the future, there are also significant complications.

Scheduling is a big one. It's also unclear what will happen if large numbers of kids arrive in high school still unable to demonstrate proficiency in certain subjects, like math, and a bottleneck gets created. Since no student can move forward without a "B" equivalent, it's also essentially impossible for students to have lower than a 3.0 GPA, which could be a challenge to explain to colleges.

'Video-game' approach to grade levels

Still, Selleck says most parents she talks to are enthusiastic, and the district is doing an enormous amount of outreach and education to explain the changes to them. (She often uses a video game analogy: Students are engaged, take as much or as little time as they need to at each level, and can't move on to the next level until they've mastered the one before it).

Arisbeth, an articulate fifth-grader at F.M. Day school whose teacher is already incorporating some of the reforms, says she's looking forward to the changes. "You'll be working with other kids where you're working on the same thing," she explains. Already, she adds, "Our voices are being heard more."

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