All-Programmed School

The theory of programmed learning is that nothing succeeds like success. It holds that some subjects are learned best when broken into tiny chunks of information that students can master one by one, each step providing its own little thrill of accomplishment. It works for subjects as diverse as chemistry, philosophy and navigation. Now a high school has organized its entire curriculum on programmed learning's principle.

The experiment at Middletown High School, near Newport, R.I., is just beginning its second year. Anywhere else. Middletown's 1,271 youngsters, mostly children of employees and servicemen of the nearby naval base, would be labeled seventh-to twelfth-graders. But Middletown has banished grades as well as failure and promotion. Instead, subjects are broken into small-step "concepts'' to be mastered over a six-year period. A student may plod in math while simultaneously flying ahead in English. For dullards, it may take seven years to get a diploma. Whippets can finish in five years. Sidney P. Rollins, the education professor at Rhode Island College who devised the plan, calls it "a sophisticated version of the one-room schoolhouse."

Typical of the concepts are the 119 steps for six years of English, ranging from No. 1 ("Taking part in conversation") and No. 49 ("Listening to evaluate truths, half-truths and falsehoods") to No. 111 ("Writing a full-length research paper with footnotes, preface and bibliography"). Latin falls into 32 concepts, French 88, Spanish 124, Social Studies 225 and History into 400.

Classes are formed by grouping students who are studying the same concepts, or are at least within a few steps of one another. Every semester, and sometimes oftener, the school is regrouped to let bright, fast students step up. Teachers use tests as the basis for advancing students from one concept to another.

One advantage is that teachers are forced to organize their subjects tightly. Another, says Principal William R. Loughery. is that students are discouraged from getting discouraged. Even report cards simply state that kids are "below, within or beyond normal range."

Equally clear is a disadvantage: the clerical headache. At first, Rollins thought teachers could use a computer to regroup the whole school every ten weeks. In practice, no suitable computer could be found, and the job takes up to six weeks of human labor. Luckily, bright teacher-wives are available at the naval base to form a staff equal to the job.

Middletown is not ready to claim complete triumph for its frenetic schedule. Still, Dr. Rollins says that Middletown has at least won that rare school prize, "a climate in which change is considered a potential ally, not a threatening enemy."

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