Mixed Age Classroom Update

Posted April 22, 2022

Exciting news for Stephen Knight Center for Early Education (SKCEE)!! SKCEE is beginning the transition to mixed age Early Childhood Education (ECE) classrooms, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to make this transition on behalf of our students. 

Our Mixed Age Classroom Rationale: SKCEE is excited for our new opportunity with mixed age (3 yr old and 4 yr old) classrooms as we welcome you to our school. We are moving to seven mixed age full day classrooms for next school year and will have four 4 yr old classrooms in 2022-2023. For 2023-2024, we will be mixed age in all general education ECE classrooms. 

School Leadership Team (SLT) & Instructional Leadership Team (ILT)’s Data Synopsis: Our SLT and ILT looked at data from multiple mixed age ECE classrooms across our District, and our current full day 3 and 4 yr old data from SKCEE. For this purpose, we looked at our state assessment data from Teaching Strategies Gold (TSGold) domains of Social Emotional, Cognitive, Math, and Literacy. Each domain has four data points per Winter assessment  for 2018 – 2019, 2019 – 2020, 2020 – 2021 and 2021 – 2022 school years. 

  • SKCEE 3 yr olds met 75% of the goal, 1 out of 20 times. 
  • SKCEE 4 yr olds met 75% of the goal, 17 out of 20 times. 
  • DPS 3 yr olds in a mixed age class met 75% of the goal, 7 out of 20 times.
  • DPS 4 yr olds in a mixed age class met 75% of the goal, 13 out of 20 times. 
  • DPS 3 yr olds from mixed age classrooms out perform SKCEE 3 yr olds in 18 of 20 data points. 
  • DPS 4 yr olds from mixed age classrooms out perform SKCEE 4 yr olds in 7 of 20 data points. 

Research: Our ILT & SLT had many discussions around different points of research. SKCEE is one of four ECE centers in DPS and each center is moving toward National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation starting next school year.  Our ILT & SLT synopsis of the research: 

  • Mixed age classrooms embrace a developmental view of learning.
  • They give the learner an opportunity for success as a learner and a mentor.
  • Older and younger learners benefit socially and emotionally from each other. 
  • Older children have the opportunity for leadership with younger learners and allow the older learners to gain confidence and increase their self-esteem. 
  • Younger children have the opportunity to increase their language skills, social skills and transition more smoothly to the school experience. 
  • Our staff will have the opportunity to “loop” with students being their 3 yr old teacher and 4 yr old teacher thus increasing student and family relationships.  

We look forward to having you as a part of our SKCEE learning community as we begin a new and exciting school year!