Although they’ll be phased out at the primary level next year, multi-age classrooms are thriving at Wentworth Intermediate School and Scarborough Middle School, principals of the two schools say.

Administrators decided this spring to eliminate the multi-age classrooms at the district’s three primary schools because of waning parent interest and state and federal testing requirements that make it difficult to teach two grades at once.

But middle school Principal Jo Anne Sizemore and Wentworth Principal Anne Mayre Dexter say parent interest in multi-age classrooms remains strong in the two schools, and testing issues aren’t insurmountable.

“Multi-age is alive and strong here,” Sizemore said. “Our multi-age program has been extremely successful.”

Dexter said some parents have been concerned that because multi-age classrooms are being eliminated at the primary schools, they might be on their way out at Wentworth, as well. Nothing could be further from the truth, she said.

“This is the time when parents are making decisions about preferences so it’s important that parents know that these options are still there,” she said.

Wentworth has six Grade 3-4 classrooms, all of which are linked to a fifth-grade classroom whose teacher instructs the younger students in at least one subject. That provides students with the continuity of moving into fifth grade with a teacher they already know.

Most of Wentworth’s other classes are “looping,” meaning that students stay with their teacher for more than one year.

The school’s decision to offer the looping option in 1999 lead to a slight decrease in the number of parents requesting multi-age classrooms, Dexter said, but the children in looping classrooms get similar benefits.

“The message that we’re getting loud and clear is that parents at the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade phase want continuity of teachers over time,” she said.

The middle school is organized into multi-grade teams, one of which has multi-age classrooms. Wentworth is also organized into “teams” of classrooms, whose students have lunch, recess and some activities together, and whose teachers share curriculum, ideas and concerns.

The effect, both teachers say, is to create “schools within a school” in two of the largest pre-high school buildings in the state. According to school officials, Wentworth is the state’s largest intermediate school and Scarborough Middle School is the state’s second largest middle school.

“Our multi-age program has been really successful,” Sizemore said. “I think probably the continuity of a teacher helps a lot. Middle school kids go through huge emotional and social transformations and they need to have consistency.”

Both principals said the mixed-age classrooms give older children an opportunity to lead and younger students role models to look up to.

“(The older children) are very nice. They support (the younger students) socially, they support them in the classroom, they support them as friends,” Dexter said.

Parents are allowed to indicate a “preference” for multi-age, looping, or regular graded classrooms when their children enter Wentworth and the middle school.