Cda Schools Expand Cross-Age Classrooms

Parents of first- and second-grade students will have more opportunities next year to place their children in cross-age classrooms.

At its regular meeting Monday, the school board voted 4-1 to remove most restrictions on the numbers of first- and second-grade cross-age classrooms in the district.

A remaining restriction is that they do not exceed the number of traditional classrooms at a given school.

Cross-age classrooms are classes in which students from two adjacent grades are taught together. Proponents say the arrangement gives younger children role models and reinforces the learning of older children.

The growing use of cross-age classrooms in the Coeur d’Alene School District alarmed some parents two years ago, who feared that the classrooms were too chaotic and student-directed for academic achievement.

Former school board chairman Ken Burchell successfully led efforts to place restrictions on cross-age classrooms and develop a policy for pilot - or experimental - teaching methods.

Burchell lost the chairmanship in a special school board meeting last week. He was the only board member to vote against removing the cross-age classrooms from pilot status. , DataTimes