I agree. I'd love to see traditional schools have flexible (across-grade) grouping. But, I agree it will never happen (except maybe in a few charter or private schools). But, I believe it would solve a lot of problems we are discussing on this thread.
It solves part of the problem, the need for younger kids to skip ahead. It does not really solve the issue for older kids, who don't need to skip, but just move faster (see HKs thoughtful comment above about compressing rather than skipping). Even with my daughter now, I see gaps where she's missed stuff from having skipped so much (it's primarily in history and social science, but also in grammar).
I could image a system where grade school is completely cross age with students allowed to skip into whatever classes they are ready for and with the opportunity for a student to enter middle school whenever they are ready academically without regard to age.
I would assume a choice of middle / high schools: a) normal pace (as per current) b) accelerated pace (for students who can go faster and either graduate early or go dual credit at a local college). The middle / high school would be equally cross age. I think this would be doable with current staffing and facilities (if you already have adequate staffing and facilities, many places don't).
It still doesn't really solve the problem for an 8 year old ready for middle school learning, but without the capacity to handle the middle school workload. Our kids are always going to be outliers and the very best solution for them would be placement in schools specifically for HG and above kids (like Davidson, but for all ages) where the highest potential students would get the support they needed. Admission would be by test results only, with no regard to economics OR achievement (which are so unfortunately linked in our society).
Of course, now we're really talking fantasy land and no such "elitist" and "non-egalitarian" idea would ever be embraced in the US.
