Multi-age classes and high ability students

This article reviews research on multi-age classroom organization as an option for high ability students. Studies of both cognitive and af-fective factors in multi-age contexts have consistently shown positive, sometimes significant, effect sizes. Studies of different types of ability grouping have shown that arrangements most likely to have positive and significant results are those where the curriculum is differenti-ated. Teachers of multi-age classes may be more likely to see their students as diverse than as similar and to provide developmentally appropriate (that is, differentiated) curricula. Multi-age classes are discussed as an alternative to self-contained classes and pullout pro-grams for high ability children. If the explosion in recent decades of theories about intelligence, language, and culture has been nothing short of exciting it has also contained a core of despair-for, given the forces of inertia and vested interest plus constraints on resources, how can we possibly ensure that all our children are educated in