Looping (idea)

Looping (also called teacher/student progression, multi-year grouping or persisting groups)¹ is the term for when a grade school class has the same teacher for more than just one year. The practice was described by the US Department of Education in 1913, under the name "teacher rotation."³ Usually done with grades K–3, looping is rare in America but more common in Europe. In Germany's Waldorf schools (established more than 70 years ago and brought to America in 1928), teachers are looped from grades 1–8.^{1, 2} Other schools in Germany loop teachers for as many as six years.² Italian preschools (considered the best in the world by some) practice three-year student-teacher assignments.²

Advantages:^{1, 2, 3}

• Students have no anxiety about a new teacher after the first year
• Shy students have a better chance of overcoming shyness
• Increased sense of community between parents, teacher and students, and more parental involvement in students' learning
• More support for students who regard school as a stabilizing force
• Roughly a month of time is not wasted getting to know new faces and determining the amount of review needed to pick up from last year's progress, and students remain focused further toward the end of the school year
• Teacher has a stronger sense of each student's intellectual strengths and weaknesses and learning style
• Greater opportunity for the teacher to tailor curriculum for the students
• Greater motivation to resolve problems that otherwise may have been ignored until the end of the school year

Disadvantages:^{1, 2, 3}

• Teacher has a need to be extra-sensitive toward new students
• Teacher often feels a sense of responsibility for students' progress and performance on standardized tests
• Separation at the end of the looping cycle is often difficult for the teacher and students alike
• Joining a looped classroom can be tough for newcomers
• Teacher is required to be able to teach more than just one grade level

The above points are supported by several studies on the practice and reports from teachers: Mazzuchi & Brooks, 1992; Jacoby, 1994; Zahorik & Dichanz, 1994; Checkley, 1995; Hanson, 1995; Shepro, 1995; Burke, 1996; Haslinger, Kelly & O'Lare, 1996; Hampton, Mumford & Bond, 1997; Lincoln, 1997.^{1, 2}

The most common concern among experts, teachers and parents is the possibility of a bad match between a student and teacher, or that students may be "stuck" with an ineffective teacher for a long period of time. In order to account for this, schools which implement looping usually have ways to overcome any difficulties that arise and frequently monitor looping teachers. Other solutions include midyear transfer requests from teachers or parents, and reviewing student placement at the end of each year.³ Despite possible problems, the majority of those involved feel the advantages greatly outweigh any disadvantages.

Variations on a Theme:^{2, 3}

• Dividing large schools into cross-disciplinary units with teachers that stay with students for several years (Oxley, 1994)
• Teacher-advisory groups which remain together for grades 7–9 (Ziegler, 1993)
• Musti-year teacher-student assignment throughout middle school (George & Alexander, 1993)
• Summer component to looping classroom, somewhat similar to year-round schools (Grant et al., 1996; Lincoln, 1997)
• "Interbuilding looping" can ease the transition from elementary to middle school (Forsten and others, 1997)

Statistics:^{2, 3}

• A study of two elementary schools without major problems in similar socioeconomic situations found that students of the loop-organized school were less likely to dislike school or call it "boring," and performed better on basic skills tests than students of the traditionally-organized school. (Milburn, 1981)
• 70% of teachers in a studied three-year loop reported they were able to use more positive appraches to classroom management. 92% of teachers reported knowing more about their students. 69% of teachers said students voluntarily participated in class more often. 85% of teachers reported that students had a stronger sense of being an important part of a group. 84% of teachers reported better relationships with parents. 99% of parents, when asked, requested that their child remain with the same teacher. (George, Spreul & Moorefield, 1987)
• The Attleboro, Massachesetts school district, where looping is implemented from grades 1–8 (often in two-year loops), reports "improved attendance [average 97.2% daily, up from 92%⁴] and test results, fewer discipline problems and special education referrals, and reduced retention." (Rappa, 1993; Steiny, 1997)
• East Cleveland Schools and Cleveland State University's Project FAST, in which multi-year teacher-student assignments were a primary focus, reported "substantially higher reading and mathematics achievement scores on standardized tests than [those of] students in the traditional grade organization, even when both groups were taught by the same teacher" (emphasis in original). Teachers felt more effective because of their increased decision-making autonomy for students. Parents said they "[felt] more respected by teachers, [had] more confidence in their children's teachers and administrators, and [were] more likely to seek the school's assistance with their children." (Burke, 1997; Hampton, Mumford & Bond, 1997)

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References:
1: NPIN: http://npin.org/pnews/2000/pnew1100/int1100d.htmlhttp://www.everything2.com/index.pl
2: ERIC·EECE: http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/1997/burke97.html, information in the public domain
3: ERIC Digest 123, December 1998: http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/digests/digest123.html
4: The Education Alliance at Brown University: http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/ic/looping/Section8.shtml
My cousin Pam, a third grade teacher