Multi-age classroom

Multi-age classrooms or composite classes are classrooms with students from more than one grade level. They are created because of a pedagogical choice of a school or school district. They are different from split classes which are formed when there are too many students for one class – but not enough to form two classes of the same grade level. Composite classes are more common in smaller schools; an extreme form is the one-room school.

Studies of the performance of students in composite classes shows their academic performance is not substantially different from those in single-grade classrooms; instead, outcomes tend to be a function of the teacher's performance.