On a given day, Stephanie Beardemphl, a teacher at Franklin Elementary, can expect to be instructing several different lessons all at once—and to several grade levels.

Sound overwhelming? Chaotic? Ineffective? Maybe for some classrooms, but when walking into Beardemphl’s room, third, fourth and fifth-graders are working well and learning in all mediums.

A group of students paint globes at a table while another group researches coral reefs on the Internet. Three students sit together going through the vocabulary list while a couple more work independently on a season worksheet.  

It’s the GATE program (gifted and talented education), and it’s a different take on highly capable classrooms.

“It’s another option for kids,” said Carolyn Treleven, executive director for curriculum and instruction for the Tacoma School District. “The idea behind the GATE program is to broaden the definition of giftedness.”

The concept is for those students who are gifted in art, leadership and creativity, but who might not be getting in the top one-percentile on tests, to be exposed to a challenging atmosphere in academics as well as arts.

Gwen Knetchtel, GATE program manager in Federal Way School District, said they got on board four years ago because the school’s highly capable programs were under-representing minority demographics.

“The culture of poverty [is] very different from middle class values…and a lot of times, tests have cultural bias,” she noted. “We wanted to be able to capture those kids who do things a little different, but have the potential.”

This is Tacoma’s first school year implementing GATE.

Beardemphl recognizes that there are glitches that occur with any pilot program, and said she thinks that it’s been working well so far.

“I feel like when I see them (the students) really flourishing or progressing it tends to be when they have some kind of hands-on work with their academic work,” said Beardemphl.

She also said that the program’s multi-age component, (which means third, fourth and fifth-graders are all learning together) can be frustrating for students at times, but sees the exchange of insight and mentoring behavior as a good signal after only a few weeks in the classroom.

“We pretty much help the third-graders,” said fifth-grader James Winlock, who patiently helped his classmate Asia Davis with a vocabulary assignment in Beardemphl’s class. “Sometimes it can get stressful, but it’s mostly fun.”

It doesn’t seem to hold the older students back, either.

“It (GATE) is more challenging,” said fifth-grader Natalie Cargill. “We do harder work than other classes.”

Multi-aged classes are designed to teach at a student’s ability level rather than grade level and allows students to move forward at a faster pace than in a standard classroom.

Principal at Franklin, Mary Chapman, said that is the essence of GATE.

“[GATE] gives them (the students) a chance to really move ahead in their curriculum and allows them to focus on their specific areas of interest in more depth,” she said, which means more time for science experiments, art and hands-on projects.

Eileen McCaffrey-Lent, GATE instructor at Downing Elementary said being able to move ahead with math in particular has been a prime example of the program’s format.

“Soon after beginning math with the third-graders, it was clear that they were ready to do fourth-grade work,” she said.

A stack of written responses from McCaffrey-Lent’s class reveals her students’ appreciation for the style of learning, integrated ages and student led discussions.

“The class works with each other,” wrote August Perry-Jones. “The fourth-graders help the third-graders, and the fifth-graders help the third- and fourth-graders.”

At the end of a reflection written by third-grader Grace Dreschel, she confirms the goals that administrators of GATE had aimed for.

“I’m going to be really challenged,” she wrote. “Surely, GATE is a place where gifted and talented kids’ brains can grow.”