What a wonderful idea, I think it definitely deserves a try. What better way to prepare our students for higher academia then to allow them access to go beyond grade level expectations and benchmarks. Let them have the freedom to fly (or atleast try).

My issue would be who writes the tests that are used for grouping these kids and what are they looking for? On a pure knowlege level there are G&T (gifted and talented) kids who are performing at college level when they're in 7th grade (you can look at Hopkins's Center for Talented Youth research data here). Does that mean they have the maturity to be in college, or even upper-class high school? Probably not in my experience. You could get around this by having tests that get into more than pure academic knowledge, but that seems pretty hard to do. I know that differentiated education is difficult for teachers, especially with a class with a very wide spread of academic levels. On the other hand there has been a lot of discussion about the evils of "creaming" in terms of charter schools, but it would seem that magnet schools are by their definition academically creaming the general population. Honestly, I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm fairly skeptical about this approach, at least for G&T kids.

I'm also skeptical about this approach for Special Ed students. The whole point of an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and inclusive education is that kids who have deficits in certain areas are pulled up by being around more typical peers. I just don't see this working in this approach unless the tests have some sort of incredible ability to sort the kids correctly. Seems doubtful to me.

If you're willing to come up with different approaches for those at the top and the bottom of the curve, maybe this is a good solution.

This is elementary school reading groups all over again. Some kids will be "red robins" and others "blue jays". (A classification system, if I recall, that was canceled in most elementary schools to ensure students felt good about themselves). I think grade levels, especially in secondary education, are important. There's something to be said about being a Senior, or a Junior... a sense of earned pride. As for preparing "our students for higher academia" by removing grade levels. I don't think anything could prepare them worse. Last time I was in college there was a pretty strict system in place of pre-requisites, grade levels, and graduation requirements that went beyond simply how smart I was.

Perhaps a better option would be to keep grade levels, but to offer more students a chance to take classes above (or below) their grade level as they progressed through the system. A more collegiate feel with a lot more structure... instead of putting all our red robins in the same classroom.