In the Loop:
Students and Teachers
Progressing Together
Looping -- when a teacher moves with his or her students to the next grade
level rather than sending them to another teacher at the end of the school
year -- was initially advocated by early 20th-century Austrian educator
Rudolf Steiner and since has been used successfully for years in Europe.
Despite the successful experiences of European school systems, looping
is still uncommon enough in the United States to be considered innovative.
Included: Looping research and comments from kids
-- pro and con -- about looping.
"I like to be with the same kids year after year," said John Van Valkenburg,
an eighth grader who has also been with the same teachers for two years
now. "I feel closer to this group than some of my family because we have
shared so many of the same experiences."
Like Van Valkenburg, many educators see clearly the advantages of looping
-- for themselves and for their students.
In Looping Through the Years: Teachers and Students Progressing Together,
educators identified some of those advantages, including
the promotion of stronger bonds between parents and teachers, teachers
and students, and students and students;
greater support for children who need stabilizing influences in their
lives;
a greater knowledge of students' strengths and weaknesses, allowing
for increased opportunities for teachers to tailor curriculum to individual
needs;
increased opportunities for shy students as well as others to develop
self-confidence;
reduced anxiety about the new school year; and
a gain of almost a month of teaching time from the second year on,
when the typical transition period at the beginning of the year is virtually
unnecessary.
Seventh grader Kevin Reckert told Education World, "If you loop, I believe
that it causes less confusion. I see that every year it takes students,
including me, a couple of months to really learn the routine and the requirements
that the teacher expects. I have been looping for two years and will again
in eighth grade, and I really enjoy understanding what my teachers want."
Eighth grader Lauren Trimble added, "Looping is comforting on the first
day of school, when there is so much going on. If you already know your
teachers and their style of teaching, it makes the beginning of school
a little less stressful."
And according to Brittany Bolden, "For me it is much easier to go into
a new grade knowing just what to expect. I don't have to go through the
awkwardness of first-day first impressions. Staying with the same group
of kids year after year makes me feel more comfortable. I know where I
fit in and that I have some type of support system in my class."
ARE THERE DISADVANTAGES TO LOOPING?
Looping is not a panacea. All students do not have great experiences,
and educators have identified several areas of potential concern. Among
them are these:
an inappropriate match -- a personality conflict between student and
student or teacher and student;
the possibility of having to put up with a poor teacher for multiple
years;
the possibility, in this day of teacher mobility, that the teacher
will not be there through the looping cycle;
less exposure to new students and teaching styles;
the difficulties faced by new students who enter a class that has
looped;
the difficulty of adjusting to large school environments after being
used to cloistered ones; and
the difficulty of separating at the end of the cycle, something that
can be difficult for both teachers and students.
"I had the same teacher for first through third grade," said eighth
grader Jeanne Miller, "and she was absolutely wonderful. I loved having
her teach me so many years in a row. However, when the time finally came
to move on, I found it hard to detach from this person who had taught
me for so long. I remember crying on the last day of school, knowing that
I wouldn't be in her classroom again. I felt abandoned and lonely."
Seventh grader Levi Smathers added, "The only part about looping I didn't
like is that I didn't get to know many other students. At lunch all I
did was hang out with my friends from my class because I didn't know anyone
else."
And according to Matt Hoffmann, "The big disadvantage I saw was that
in the real world I will probably have to make many changes in my life.
Learning how to adapt to changes in the way you work is something that
will help you adapt to change later on, and I think learning how to deal
with change is something that should be learned when young."
WHY TARGET STUDENTS IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS?
Because early adolescence can be an especially difficult time, a fair
amount of research has targeted this age group as one that could benefit
from looping.
JoAnn Brennan, a paraprofessional who has worked with middle-school
looped classes, lauds the practice. "When you've looped, you've already
established ground rules, you've already established relationships with
parents, and you've already established trust. The returning students
have met success; they've had a taste of it, and want it again. You already
understand their strengths and weaknesses," she told Education World,
"so in a very short time, you can pick up where you left off last year.
You can begin work almost from day one."
In 1997, University of Florida at Gainesville educators Paul George
and Kathy Shewey identified 60 U.S. middle schools that looped instruction.
Thirty-five schools in 14 states answered their surveys, the results of
which were reported in "What Does the Research Say? Maintaining Long-Term
Teacher and Student Relationships," published in Schools in the Middle.
Educators who responded were very positive about the long-term benefits
of looping. Eighty-four percent felt that it resulted in better classroom
discipline, 80 percent said the students got to know one another better,
95 percent said they felt they knew their students better, and 80 percent
said they now could avoid unnecessary duplication from previous years.
The researchers also sent surveys to students, and more than 1,100 responded.
Students' reactions were not as positive as the teachers' reactions. Almost
800 of them felt looping helped them make more and better friends, and
about 750 felt their teachers knew them better and cared more about them,
but several said it was harder to adjust to the huge environment of high
school after being in such a protected one in middle school.
The researchers sent surveys to parents too and received 586 back. The
parents' comments were less positive than both the students' and the teachers'
were. About 375 felt looping improved academic achievement, and approximately
340 responded that even after their child had spent two or three years
with the same person, they still did not know the teacher better.
Another study, a 1997 pilot program sponsored by East Cleveland (Ohio)
Schools and Cleveland State University, found students in a looping program
exhibited substantially higher reading and mathematics achievement scores
on standardized tests than did students in the traditional grade organization,
even when both groups were taught by the same teacher. (Source: Looping:
Adding Time, Strengthening Relationships.)
The same article cites other research too. In 1987, researchers, again
using personal evaluations, found approximately 70 percent of the teachers
who responded to a survey reported looping improved classroom management,
and 69 percent said students more frequently participated in class. Most
of the parents in this study requested that their children have the same
teachers as the previous year.
A study in 1981 compared academic outcomes of students in two schools
of similar socioeconomic levels, one with a traditional grade-level structure
and the other a school in which the students remained with the same teacher
for more than one year. Those in the extended-relationship school outperformed
their counterparts in the traditional school on basic skills tests.
MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED
Writer Michele Kurtz explored the quality of research available on looping
for a 1998 Charlotte News-Observer story, "Teachers Plot to Give
Students a Loop." "Research on looping's effectiveness," she stated, "is
somewhat limited, in part because it's not used on a widespread basis
in most school systems. Rather, individual schools instinctively decide
to try out the method with small numbers of teachers."
Many of the studies that do exist, Kurtz concluded, are not recent and
many rely on personal evaluation. Additional high-quality empirical research
not dependent on personal evaluation is still needed in order to determine
whether, as many contend, looping really has a positive effect on student
performance.
