(07-03) 10:41 PDT Kansas City, Mo. (AP) -- 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. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/03/national/a104032D76.DTL#ixzz0sggB0HKe