| The purpose of this study was to explore the differences between Reading/Language achievement gains of students in multi-age classrooms to the Reading/Language achievement gains of their peers in traditional, single graded classrooms.; The causal-comparative quantitative approach to exploring cause-and-effect relationships was employed in this study. In this study, the effect of multi-age grouping and single age grouping was analyzed and compared using TCAP Reading/Language raw gain scores. Raw gain scores were used to determine the amount of progress children make from one year to the next regardless of their level of achievement.; Findings in this study were mixed. Some significant differences were found in favor of single-age classrooms. However, the calculation of effect size showed no practical significance. Significance was also revealed in favor of males over females in both single-age and multi-age classrooms; although, effect size indicated only a small to moderate practical significance exists.; This study provides an overview of the history of American educational structures. It might be helpful for the educational community in evaluating one dimension of the effectiveness of multi-age groupings. Teachers and administrators could benefit from the comparisons made in this study and as a result make better decisions regarding the delivery of instruction and the structuring of school classrooms. |
