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[quote=Anonymous]With our current system, you are always going to have a 12-month spread in a given grade.  Some schools do multi-age groupings or manage to do smaller 6-month spreads in the pre-school classes, but otherwise, you are going to have a spread.  Where problems happen is when you start to extend this range.  A 12-month calendar age range really means up to a 24-month developmental age range.  Realistically, teachers and schools should be prepared to support students who are developmentally below the chronological age for a given grade.  It's called differentiation and should be an expected part of a given classroom.  The problem here is really two-fold: teachers balking at helping kids below grade-level, though still within the normal range of development; and parents fearing having a kid being anything but the star of the class.  Ultimately, everyone suffers when kids are moved out of the appropriate grade/age/developmental range for the wrong reasons.  If a kid's developmental level is too far below his chronological age that he must be held behind than either A) the classroom is not prepared or B) that child needs additional supports, not just extra time.  Some will ultimately be fine with extra time, but they likely would have been better off staying in the right grade and getting extra support.

I say this as an experienced teacher.[/quote]

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