Multigrade classrooms in Pakistan: How teacher conditions and practices affect student achievement

Little attention has been paid to the problems of teachers and school systems when they combine grades in one school or classroom. Combining grades carries implications for teachers, the way they teach, the training they receive, and the way they are handled by government authorities.;From a sample of 618 teachers in the survey, I use the Analysis of Variance procedure to test the degree to which the effects of teacher background conditions, teaching practices and their interaction terms are significantly associated with increases in student achievement in each of 4 test categories.;Results from the analysis indicate that formal education of the teacher, using a translator in the classroom and to a lesser extent time teaching math and science and using monitors are reasons why single grade teachers get better results from their students than multigrade teachers. Urban and rural location explains little why single grade students seem to do better on achievement tests.;The findings suggest that multigrade teachers need preparation to teach multi-age and multi-ability students. Current teacher certification includes no such training. Teachers need to teach and manage more effectively by using instructional assets of time, space and curriculum to improve the performance of their students. The Pakistanis could create their own multigrade teaching traditions by assigning tasks to groups, using students as peer teachers and looking to the community for instructional resources.;This study adds to the growing knowledge about multigrade education by reviewing literature and by analyzing data from Pakistan which was collected by the Academy of Educational Planning and Management in Pakistan (AEPAM) and by BRIDGES in 1989. The central question of this research asks, what accounts for achievement differences between single and multigrade students in 4th and 5th grade Mathematics and Science in Pakistan? The questions are answered by testing the importance of education and certification of the teacher, specific teaching practices and location of the school as conditions that affect achievement. Answering the questions points to recommendations that improve the performance of students in multigrade settings.