Looping

Looping represents a curricular-instructional practice where a group of students remain under the guidance of a teacher for more than the standard [Page 548]period of time (typically more than a single academic year) while they are promoted to a new grade level. After typically a 2- or 3-year period, students move on to a new teacher(s) and the original (looping) teacher returns to a lower grade level to work with a new group of students. Resting upon the premise that better curricular and instructional practices may be crafted by the teacher who has become familiar with the needs and interests of the students, looping is often used as a way to establish a small school feeling and stability to the educational process. The practice is ...