Looping: A Curriculum Option

Adaptability For Student Needs

The concept of the one-room school house conjures memories of rural settings and wet mittens drying by the wood-burning stove. It is a Norman Rockwell moment that the parents of middle-aged Americans have described many times during “back in my day” conversations.

One might think this method of education to be crude when compared to modern teaching systems. But the centuries-old practice is still, at least in part, alive and well in many school districts across the country, including the School District of Beloit, WI.

The SDB has, for decades, (according to Beloit School District Assistant Superintendent Anthony Bonds), employed a concept that, in at least one way, mirrors the one-room curriculum of the past:

It’s not a widespread practice. But it is happening in Beloit. And it is called “looping.”

Leveraging Relationships

Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalist, writes:

While it’s far from the norm in most American schools, looping is hardly a new concept. Until 1848, when Quincy Grammar School in Boston opened, classrooms were not graded in the United States, according to Irv Richardson, associate executive director of staff development for educators in New Hampshire. It was only after education reformer and legislator Horace Mann visited European schools in 1843 and brought their methods back to American classrooms that today’s rigidly organized school system emerged. Looping started to fall out of favor in the late ’30s and ’40s, when reformers made the push toward age-specific, time-bound classes, said education consultant Jim Grant, co-founder of the National Alliance of Multiage Educators.”People were looking for something new,” he said. “They weren’t valuing the concept of the relationship factor.”

The relationship factor is one of the components in a pro/con analysis of looping by educator/writer Jennifer Rita Nichols. She states:

In many schools, looping has been integrated as a regular procedure. It has become normal for students to spend more than one year with the same teachers. Of course, as with any methods or practices, there are pros and cons that need to be considered when deciding if looping can enhance learning at your school and if it could be something you wish to implement.

According to Nichols, the pros of looping include:

• Improves relationships with students
• Improves relationships with parents/families
• Improves understanding of student needs
• Promotes teacher innovation
• Benefits classroom management

And the cons include:

• Teachers may become too comfortable
• Students may adapt less easily to change
• Negative relationships may persist
• Teachers might get less exposure to different teaching methods
• Teachers might be less comfortable and skilled at all levels

An Option If Conditions Are Right

So, in what ways is the SDB employing the looping model? School District of Beloit Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning and Innovation, Anthony Bonds, says that looping has been going on for decades in the Beloit area and that it is currently a working part of the local curriculum. Bonds relates that the decision to loop depends upon the “building, the principal and the teacher.” He explains that in most cases the teacher asks to engage in looping and the principal decides if the conditions are right for a looping program. He indicated that there are at least three district schools that have a looping program in progress: Gaston, Todd and Fruzen.

SDB Director of Teaching and Learning, Angie Montpass, offers that looping is especially effective in terms of smooth transitions and a real benefit for poverty students who often struggle with change. She points out that the district administration leaves nearly all decisions regarding looping programs to the teachers and principals. She adds that teachers who decide to try looping will, likely, be dealing with a much larger work load.

Bonds and Montpass both seem to feel that these programs are valuable and that the school district will continue fostering the concept in Beloit.

It’s not exactly Laura Ingalls Wilder’s little schoolhouse on the prairie. But the looping tradition in Beloit does help to engender an approach to education that views relationships, understanding and special attention to be worthy parts of the district’s learning landscape. And one might find it edifying to see that some of the methods of the past continue to enhance the present.
 

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