Continuous
Progress
Continuous progress refers to the academic and developmental growth of students in a multiage program. Students learn new materials as they are ready, regardless of their age, and teachers help them advance as far as they are able. Because the multiage classroom does not have grade levels, students do not get promoted to the next level at the end of the school year; instead they progress at their own pace from simple to more complex material throughout the year (Cotton, 1993b). At the beginning of each new school year, students pick up where they left off at the end of the previous year (Gutierrez & Slavin, 1992).
Because a multiage classroom has students with a wide range of ages and abilities, continuous progress allows students to take responsibility for their own learning. Learning is success oriented and noncompetitive (Privett, 1996). Continuous progress provides an alternative to retention (keeping a child in the same grade for another year) and social promotion (promoting poor-performing students with their age group).
