Utah Elementary School Experiments With "Looping" To Raise Performance

The Deseret Morning News (UT) (9/1, Wimmer) reports on McPolin Elementary School, which is experimenting with "looping," in which teachers follow their students as they move up in grade. "Research shows it's four to six weeks of added instruction time because of the familiarity and the procedures and routines in place," explained Principal Bob Edmist. "When you work with students and you work with the parents and they have to work with each other for two years, you develop deeper relationships." According to Sydnee Dickson, teaching and learning director at the State Office of Education, "looping is also good teaching model because teachers can connect curriculum from year to another."