In their study, Grant, Richardson, and Forsten (2000) stated that a
1913 memo from the U.S. Department of interior touted that looping as one
as one of the most important issues facing urban schools: "Shall teachers
in graded schools be advanced from grade to grade with their pupils through
a series of two, three, four or more years so that they may come to know
the children they teach and be able to build the work of the latter years
on that of the earlier years, or shall teachers be required to remain year
after year in the same grade while the children, promoted from grade to
grade, are taught by a different teacher every year? Because many
elementary school teachers spend most of their careers assigned to one
grade level, they tend to be thought of as specialists in that grade level
rather than as specialist of teaching children." (Grant, Richardson, &
Therefore the question is, "What is the effect of looping students
and the relationships between, parents, teachers, and students? Several
scholarly articles were reviewed as the resource of literature and each
author and researchers have views that are similar in their findings. The
articles reviewed range from the year 1997 up to 2007. In each article the
researchers found data that had some answers to whether looping had an
effect on students, teachers, and parents relationships.
The practice of looping dates back to the era where there was only a
one room schoolhouse and one teacher that taught students of the ages of
six to eighteen years of age. As an educational practice, looping has
existed for several centuries in Germany, Japan, and Italy (Simel, 1998).
The practice of keeping students and teachers together for several years
was and still is intentional. It was implemented in both elementary and
secondary schools. It was not until Dewey and his colleagues introduced the
idea of a 'community of learners' in the early 1900'...