Limitations of Graded Education

Limitations of Graded Education

Miller (1995) notes that the conventional age-graded classroom is based on three assumptions:

"That students of the same chronological age are ready to learn the same objectives.

That students require the same amount of time, as in an academic year, to master predetermined content.

That students can master predesigned objectives for a grade level for all curricular areas at the same rate." (p. 28)

Miller (1995) adds that "grouping students strictly by age does not reflect a naturalistic lifelike setting in which people of different ages learn from each other" (p. 29). He concludes: "The practice of grouping by age and grade may be creating a significant barrier to meeting the goals of equity and instructional excellence in schools" (p. 28).

Katz (1995) agrees that single-age grades do not allow for developmental differences between children:

"Single-age groups seem to create enormous normative pressures on the children and the teacher to expect all the children to be at the same place on knowledge and skills. There is a tendency in a homogeneous age group to penalize the children who fail to meet normative expectations. Similarly, there is also a temptation in a group of same-age children to overuse whole-class instruction. There is no evidence to show that a group of children who are all within a 12-month age range can be expected to learn the same things, the same way, the same day, at the same time."