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The Effects of Looping on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) Results in One Urban Middle School

Introduction

The 6th and 7th grade classroom academic performance relevant to student achievement is just as unresolved today as it was decades ago. Teachers often debated and discussed diverse interrelated activities, strategies, and methods used to improve student performance such as hands-on instruction, the use of technology, and differentiated instruction. Such discussions involve various level opinions from the individual school-level teachers, administrators, and parents to the district-wide and state-level curriculum personnel. Each person involved in the deliberations has a unique view regarding the best type of environment for instruction in core subject areas (Canady and Rettig, 2008).

With the 2007 reauthorization of the original 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), every student needs a paramount level of instruction to improve academic achievement. The demands have become more intensified for math and reading excellence, annual testing, higher expectations with more accountability, and the necessity to have effective teachers in core academic subjects in every classroom (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). These demands align with the United States Department of Education concerning the need for greater emphasis on the mathematical achievement of all students.

With the concept of No Child Left Behind, the bulk of the research has been concentrated on the effects of looping in elementary grades where looping has been more prevalent. The vast majority of the research completed on the concept of looping has focused on qualitative aspects, such as perception of how students, parents, and students feel about looping, rather than quantitative results, focusing on student test scores and academic achievement. According to Vann (1997), looping is a practice, which under the right conditions can benefit both students and teachers. Looping enables the teacher to stay with his or her students for at least two years of instruction. Few researchers have conduct studies specifically related to the results of looping in the middle grades. Anfara (2003) stated that although the current research base for middle level organizational structures is promising, there is still a critical need for additional research specifically focused on how these structures impact student learning and achievement.

Problem Statement

How teachers often debated and discussed diverse interrelated activities, strategies, and methods used to improve student performance such as hands-on instruction, the use of technology, and differentiated instruction?

A substantial body of research has accumulated in the last 2 decades that has examined the correlates of success in academic achievement in general and mathematics in particular. Attitudinal and affective variables such as self-concept, confidence in learning mathematics and science, mathematics/science interest and motivation, and self-efficacy have emerged as salient predictors of achievement in mathematics and science. These factors also predict mathematics avoidance on the part of students, which affects long-term achievement and career aspirations in the mathematics/science fields (Eccles & Jacobs, 1986; Ladd, 2001; Marzano & Pollock, 2007). Walberg (1981) advanced a theory of educational productivity on the basis of 120 research syntheses of over 2,000 studies (Fraser, Walberg, Stiggins, ...