Top 3 Benefits of Blended Classrooms

Students returning to PJA’s 4th and 5th grades this year are discovering the joys and benefits of blended classrooms. Sometimes called “multiage” or “mixed age” classrooms, blended classrooms have been implemented successfully in a wide range of schools – independent and public, religious and secular – for decades. I first learned about blended classrooms when I started my teaching career at Germantown Friends School (GFS) in Philadelphia in 1987. GFS utilized blended classrooms for students in grades 1-6.

Blended classrooms were standard throughout the U.S. until the mid-19th Century. (Think about the “one-room schoolhouse,” for example.) The movement toward a curriculum-centered, grade-level system led to the popularization of single age grade groupings, but educational reformers revived the use of blended classrooms in the 1980’s and 1990’s, believing that it’s a more student-centered and developmentally appropriate approach to education. These efforts were complicated in the early 2000’s when the federal “No Child Left Behind” act mandated annual, grade-level, standardized testing, but today we are, once again, seeing an increase in blended
learning across all school types.

Some educational philosophies are fully grounded in blended learning, of course. Montessori and Waldorf schools, for example, employ blended classrooms with students that typically differ in age by 2-3 years. These schools typically break students into smaller groups based on ability in various subject areas, rather than age. In addition, these schools generally keep students with the same teacher for several years in order to better capitalize on the knowledge that teachers develop over time regarding how best to meet the needs of each learner.

In any blended classroom environment, there are some very specific benefits.

1. Students experience a more individualized approach to learning. Students are better able to learn at their own pace, and the curriculum is flexible to meet the needs of each student.
2. Blended classrooms are better in terms of social learning, according to research published in the Journal of Educational and Social Research. This is because students learn from one another in a setting in which older students often take on a leadership role.
3. Teachers can continually reconfigure the classroom. By assigning children to work in small groups that shift frequently, students are always working with students at their academic level.

At PJA
Blended classrooms are not new to PJA, and our experiences with blended classrooms and multiage program have been very successful. PJA has utilized blended classrooms in the middle school for many years, especially in areas such as science and in exploratory (or elective) classes. This year, PJA is expanding its use of blended classrooms in the middle school to include 6th /7th grade Humanities. Other opportunities, such as our mishpacha (families) program has brought mixed-age groups together for shared learning and community-building.

Blended 4th /5th grade classrooms are also gaining traction in the Portland Public Schools. Last year, PPS had a small number of 4th /5th grade blended classrooms, and teachers noted enhanced learning and more positive socialization. In the 2025-26 school year, PPS has increased the number of such classrooms by 450%, with more than 10% of all 4th and 5th graders in the PPS system now learning in blended classrooms. PPS is planning to “loop” teachers in the future, meaning that students will have the same teacher for two years in a row.

PJA’s 4th /5th teaching team has spent considerable time planning for the implementation of the blended model to ensure its success. It’s an exciting time to be a 4th/5th grade student at PJA!