The gift of time: multi-age teaching and curriculum design, or looping, work to provide a continuum that maximizes learning.

Billions of dollars are spent on education and, it seems, several billion more criticizing it. Are there no bright lights on the horizon of education reform?

Why yes--quite a few, actually. One of them is the not-so-new idea of one teacher remaining with a group of students across several grades, or "looping."

Across the education reform landscape elementary schools are becoming aware of a strategy where the teacher "loops" with the same students through the cycles of two or more academic years. Coupled with this reform is a change in the notion that there are certain sacred-to-grade-level content topics that must be addressed, for which we can thank the national content standards movement. No longer do we mandate certain sets of books that must somehow be covered from September through June; now we specify student performance. Put this together with the familiarity a teacher and student can develop across two or three academic years and you have a formula for success.

Where did it all begin?

The idea that a teacher will prepare a common group of students across more than one academic year is not at all new. Surges in the school-age population have caused many generations of teachers to form "combination classes" where a teacher taught two grade levels simultaneously, often with a shorthand version of some of the curriculum content. But that is not what we mean today by looping.

Only in the early 20th century did the idea of rigid classes and grade levels begin to hold students into compartments until their social group was ready to advance as a unit. When the workforce began to occupy both parents and child-care became the highest priority, lock-step activity became a high priority for schools.

A continuum of learning

The teacher in a multi-age class has a gift of time and the ability to look critically at the entire curriculum for two consecutive grade levels, and know that he has two years to take the student from where she is on that continuum of learning to the end or beyond. In a multi-year class, the second year is where the big payoff occurs. The teacher knows exactly what the student has learned, since he was a big part of those learnings. Teaching and learning begins on day one of the second year. The class operates as a family and if a new student is introduced, the class quickly adopts him and shows him the ropes.

Looping or multi-year teaching began in the Rocklin Unified School District in Placer County as an explicit, intentional delivery design in 1993 at Rocklin Elementary School. The impetus for multi-year classes came from a teacher who had researched the design and made a proposal to the principal, who was looking for a way to supercharge curriculum delivery. Thus was born the first multi-age/looping class in the district to be designed as an ongoing program.

The following year, as parents began requesting the class, a demand was created. Looping classes were begun at the intermediate level. As the years rolled on, several more looping and multi-age classes were developed to encompass the entire grade spectrum (kindergarten through sixth) at Rocklin Elementary School and demand was higher than the supply.

Preparing teachers

Of particular concern to school and district leaders was the issue of staffing. This strategy was unfamiliar to many of the district's teachers and completely foreign to the new teacher candidates from local universities.

The principal at Rocklin Elementary decided that he would need to "grow" his own looping and multi-age teachers. As student teachers were placed at Rocklin Elementary, they were paired with looping or multi-age teachers. If they became excited about the model they were observed by the principal many times more than called for by the usual student teaching program. The principal and the master teachers held frequent discussions to decide if the student teacher was inclined to become a multi-year teacher. Thus, the district was able to equip traditionally prepared new teachers for service, expanding the potential number of multi-year classes.

We believe it is unfortunate that the local universities could not be enticed to join with Rocklin in a partnership to equip teachers with the important skills to be outstanding in the multi-age and looping curriculum designed classrooms. Perhaps they will in future years.

Sierra Elementary School

Sierra Elementary, also in the Rocklin Unified School District, was built in 2001 on the principle of looping and multi-age curriculum design. Teachers were recruited and employed based on their commitment to and their excitement about the concept. Principal Robert Capp had proved the concept's effectiveness while serving as principal at another elementary in the district.

Working with individual teachers, Capp encouraged the development of a climate for teaching where anything less than success simply was not accepted by the teachers. Children from all economic levels were able to develop much more successfully than their counterparts in a traditional classroom track.

Teachers returning from the summer break lost no time at all to review and students did not have to learn how to catch up, because both students and teachers knew precisely what had been mastered. Since teachers had the same students for a new grade level, they were able to better prepare each student's lessons and experiences. There was no guesswork about what had been learned or not learned the previous year.

All teachers at Sierra Elementary are passionate about teaching in the multi-year design. They can look at the continuum of learning expectations and standards for those two grade levels and move their students to the end of that continuum or beyond, all in the span of two years.

An opportunity, not a sentence

When promoting the concept of multiyear teaching, many parents and teachers initially responded that it would be great unless the match of student, teacher and parent was wrong. At Sierra Elementary, multi-year classes have been presented as an incredible opportunity, but not a sentence. If it isn't working out for all parties, then a change is made for the second year. Building relationships with students is the heart of multi-year teaching, and the soul is knowing each of the student's needs based on information that has been gathered over a longer period of time.

In the first year of operation, Sierra Elementary surpassed everyone's expectations. There is a fantastic culture of learning at the school. Students commit themselves to learning because their teachers commit themselves to ensuring that learning takes place.

In its first assessment, the school's API for 2001-02 was 819, an incredible accomplishment from a regional population where schools are not nearly so high. The school's reading emphasis has been twice recognized nationally.

No place for protectionist thinking

Making this design work requires a concept that may be unfamiliar in some school faculty circles--commitment. There is no place for protectionist thinking about how little a teacher can get away with having to do and still keep the job. In this design, the effective teacher is totally empowered to shine and is consistently provided the freedom to do so.

With only the content standards as the guide, the teachers forge learning paths for each of their students across two or even three grade levels and build increasing success cycles for each learner. The students are not held back at any time, but move freely into more challenging material as they are ready.

Teachers at Sierra Elementary have made these comments about teaching in the looping school curriculum design:

* "The two-year approach has been particularly helpful in accelerating students in math and language arts."

* "The struggling student has his needs established early and the teacher has plenty of time to correct them."

* "The pay is the same, the work is double, but the professional satisfaction rewards to the teacher are unimaginable!"

* "Looping benefits children of all abilities and backgrounds."

* "Academic planning can be addressed over a longer term, with attention to retention of learning and extension of skills."

* "More time to cover the content in enhanced ways."

* "Better able to establish connections between grade-level content areas."

None of the teachers has requested to opt out after experiencing looping, but that would be expected since they would not have been selected for Sierra without having convinced the principal that they were committed to the model. A greater testimonial to the model may be that teachers at other schools in Rocklin are starting to ask when they can do looping at their school.

Parents like it too

Parents are incredibly excited about this model for schooling. They are willing to wait on a list to be admitted to Sierra Elementary and often ask why other schools aren't using this method. A list of 30 randomly selected parents whose children had experienced at least two years in a loop were asked to rate the effectiveness for this approach to school organization on an open Likert-type scale from 0 to 6, with 0 meaning non-effective and 6 meaning maximally effective.

They were asked, "Compared to traditional grade-level grouping, I believe I have seen growth in my child across at least two years of looping that suggest to me looping is the best way for schools to be organized."

0=No difference

6=Maximum effectiveness

Out of the 30 randomly selected parents who received surveys, 31 were returned! One parent was so excited about the process of looping that she duplicated the survey and handed it to a neighbor whose child was also in class with her child. Discounting the extra survey response (which was also a "6") there were 22 marked at "6," one at "5.5" and seven surveys marked at "5." The mean rating by parents was 5.783.

Several of the parents marking a "6" and whose children were in the second year of a loop or completing a second looping experience said that they held quiet reservations in the first year, but had now found the looping design to be better than anything they had ever experienced in terms of maximizing learning outcomes.

Why don't more schools do this?

In the words of several Sierra Elementary parents, we must repeat the question: "Why don't more schools do this?" The answer lies in greater understanding by instructional leaders and teachers about the power of this design, as well as in the increasing of a level of professionalism among teachers so that they are willing to do whatever it takes to serve the children of our schools.

RELATED ARTICLE: Another look at looping.

Is multiage grouping losing steam, as a recent headline in Education Week declared?

In Kentucky, the state that was the focus of the Sept. 10 article, multiage classrooms have lost favor, and the reason is simple. Grade-specific standards can make multi-age teaching appear to be more difficult. But once that barrier is overcome, advantages remain.

Ellen McIntyre, associate professor of education at University of Louisville, told Education Week that because of Kentucky's focus over the last decade on multiage teaching, teachers have learned more about varying their instruction to meet student needs.

Multiage classrooms are "a way to nudge people toward more developmentally appropriate practice," McIntyre said.

Research on the effect of the practice on student achievement is mixed. However, ERIC's Susan Kinsey reviewed the research and found that "students in multiage classrooms demonstrate more positive attitudes toward school, greater leadership skills, greater self esteem and increased prosocial" behavior. Researchers know that these factors all relate to greater student achievement.

Carol Cummings of the Raising Healthy Children Project at the University of Washington said, "It can take from three to six weeks at the beginning of the school year to establish classroom routines and expectations." By allowing students to stay with the same teacher for more than one year, "looping literally buys time," she told the ASCD Education Update.

Research from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory identified several requirements for successful implementation, including: review the research before starting; don't settle on a single model; avoid bottom-up or top-down mandates; recognize that major changes in attitudes toward teaching and children will be needed; and prepare for evolving, long-term changes by taking strategic, incremental steps.

--Susan Davis

FOR MORE ABOUT MULTIAGE TEACHING

Below are several Internet resources about multiage teaching. The evidence from the investigations provides answers to the question of why a school would want to enter into this particular design for schooling--because it works better than anything else.

* http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed429330.html discusses the critical implementation components to looping.

* http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed414098.html gives a brief history of looping in the U.S. and research to its effectiveness.

* http://www.ascd.org/cms/index.cfm? TheViewID = 1160&topnav=1 provides a list of articles in a table of contents format that lists many multi-age and looping resources.

* http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edupdate/1998/1mar.html presents looping as an option for buying time and the ability to enrich the curriculum as well as postponing high stakes decisions for students.

* http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_update/199803/rasmussen.html presents the previous article, but includes a question/answer section.

Daniel C. Elliott is a former teacher, principal and district superintendent who has taught educational leadership courses at Azusa Pacific University Robert Capp is a principal and has been named the 2003-04 California Elementary Principal of the Year by the Association for California School Administrators. The two have co-authored the book, "Change Agent Playbook: Coaching Teachers for Excellence," published by Learning Light Publications. More information is available by e-mailing [e-mail].