Forget Grade Levels, Kansas City, Mo., Schools Try Something New

Alex Rodriguez, 11, looks over the shoulders of his younger brother Richard, 4, and sister Alejandra, 7, as they do homework at their home in Denver last month. His school uses a new approach, now being adopted in Kansas City, Mo., that focuses on students individually mastering subjects rather than adhering to grade levels.

—Ed Andrieski/AP

By The Associated Press

Kansas City, Mo.

Forget about students spending one year in each grade, with the entire class learning the same skills at the same time. Districts from Alaska to Maine are taking a different route.

Instead of simply moving kids from one grade to the next as they get older, schools are grouping students by ability. Once they master a subject, they move up a level. This practice has been around for decades, but was generally used on a smaller scale, in individual grades, subjects or schools.

Now, in the latest effort to transform the bedraggled Kansas City, Mo. schools, the district is about to become what reform experts say is the largest one to try the approach. Starting this fall officials will begin switching 17,000 students to the new system to turnaround trailing schools and...