Abstract

This study assesses the effects of a looping program serving grades seven and eight at a middle school located in northeastern Wisconsin. It measures the impact of looping on students’ academic motivation and attitudes toward school and school activities. Looping is defined as a classroom program in which students and their teacher stay together for at least two years. The study was a non-experimental, descriptive, quantitative study utilizing a data collection instrument called the School Attitude Measure (SAM) which measures respondents’ attitudes on five-attitudinal scales using a four-item response scale (Wick, 1990). The five-attitudinal scales are: Motivation for Schooling, Academic Self-Concept (Performance Based), Academic Self-Concept (Reference Based), Student’s Sense of Control over Performance, and Student Attitudes toward Instructional Mastery.