ABSTRACT
More formally known as teacher—student progression, looping refers to the multiyear practice whereby students stay with their teachers for 2 or more years as they get promoted to new grades (Forsten, Grant, Johnson, & Richardson, 1997; Gaustad, 1998; Laboratory at Brown University, 1997). The process, which allows teachers to move from one grade to the next with their students and repeat the cycle (e.g., Gaustad, 1998), has numerous benefits, notably higher academic achievement, improved attendance, and parental support. According to George and Lounsbury (2000), looping allows large schools to feel small by enabling students and teachers to stay together for multiple years. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s 1999 study (as cited in George & Lounsbury, 2000) of 1,626 Georgia schools reinforces this claim: “The strongest point of the study is that the analysis was broad enough to show clearly that smaller schools are better for poorer kids than large schools” (p. 3).
