District considers expanding school's pilot looping plan

Published in the Asbury Park Press 7/19/04

By RODNEY POINT-DU-JOUR
KEYPORT BUREAU

MATAWAN -- Administrators in the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School district are considering whether to expand a pilot program at Strathmore Elementary School to the other three elementary schools, to help students ease the transition as students advance from grade to grade.

The plan, called looping, would keep students in a class with their teacher for two consecutive school years. For instance, after completing first grade, a student would advance to second grade with the same teacher and classmates. The looping program for first- and second-graders was implemented four years ago at Strathmore.

The intent of the looping program is to maintain the students' social surroundings and enable the teacher to focus on the curriculum, rather than worry about getting the students acclimated to the class's daily routine, said Bruce Quinn, the superintendent of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District.

Parents hope the looping program is orchestrated fairly throughout the district's four elementary schools, said Kathy Camarote, the spokeswoman for Concerned Parents of Matawan and Aberdeen. Camarote would like to see looping implemented before the 2005-06 school year, when the district is planning to have the program in place.

In September, the district is beginning the first phase of the reorganization of the four elementary schools.

The plan, approved by the Board of Education in March, will convert the Lloyd Road Elementary School into a fourth- and fifth-grade school with Ravine Drive, Strathmore and Cliffwood Avenue elementary schools, each having kindergarten through third grade.

Officials said the measure will bring racial balance to the four schools, while expanding the gifted-and-talented program to each elementary school. Music, special education and English as a Second Language will also be offered at each of the four schools.

Third- to fourth-grade looping has been primarily conducted at Strathmore, where the program has been implemented for the past four years, said Robert J. Rodgers, superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

In 2005-06, educators are also considering loops for kindergartners and first-graders at Cliffwood Avenue, Strathmore and Ravine Drive schools; for second- and third-graders at Cliffwood Avenue, Strathmore and Ravine Drive; and for fourth- and fifth-graders at Lloyd Road, Rodgers said.

"The major plus of looping is that you will keep teachers with students who already know their habits, their personalities and their capabilities," Quinn said. "The downfall would be the teacher will have to learn a different curriculum each year."

Camarote, who represents a parent group opposed to redistricting the district's four elementary schools, said she wants the loop program to be shared throughout the district. "Instead of having all of the four looped classes coming from one school, which is Strathmore, they should have one class from each school loop up to fourth grade at Lloyd Road," said Camarote, who believes the Board of Education has shown strong favoritism to students attending Strathmore. "That way no one can question why all of the looped classes are coming from one school."

Sandy Morris, the principal of the Frank Defino Central School in the Marlboro Township School District, said she has seen the benefits of looping at that school. There, looping has been in place with first- and second-graders at the elementary school for the past seven years.

"With looping, the teacher knows where they are, and the student knows what is expected of them," Morris said. "When they come in September, they are in a better setting, and they know what the expectations are."

Added benefits of the program allow teachers to give students reading assignments to maintain an academic connection over the summer vacation, Morris said.

"I've never heard anything negative about this program," said Morris, who has seen test scores improve at her first- through fifth-grade school.

Test scores also improved at Strathmore in 2001, the second year of looping at the school, Rodgers said.

The program has been so well received, the parents voiced strong opinions about expanding the looping program during four public hearings in January, regarding the reorganiza-tion plan, Rodgers said.

"We haven't seen any negative impact whatsoever," Rodgers said. "The impact has been so positive that one of the issues raised by some parents was to have it continued."

Quinn said he has spent most of his summer discussing the program with teachers, who would have to learn a new cur-riculum every year if the loop-ing program is fully utilized by the district.

"We want to consider doing this, because there are a lot of benefits that can come from it," Quinn said. "But we also want to have teachers who are going to feel comfortable with mak-ing the change."