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PARK CITY — Students at a Park City elementary started the school year with the same teacher, the same friends, and even in the same classroom as last year. They're part of an experiment with a practice known as "looping."
Tuesday was only the fourth day of school for students at McPolin Elementary School, but already Linda Dugins' class has written and printed out poems. It's an assignment that would normally never take place this early in the year.
Research shows its four to six weeks of added instruction time because of the familiarity and the procedures and routines in place.
–Bob Edmist, McPolin Elementary School principal
"I feel like that's something we might have tackled two or three weeks into the school year," Dugins said.
They've hit the ground running because when these students graduated from third grade, their teachers went with them into fourth grade. School leaders want to see if this sort of looping can boost performance.
"Research shows its four to six weeks of added instruction time because of the familiarity and the procedures and routines in place," explained Principal Bob Edmist.
Students can see the academic benefits.
"The teacher already knows what I'm good at and the things we need to work on," said Miles Nagel, a student involved in the looping program.
"My favorite part is we get to jump right in," classmate Jack Henry said.
The teacher already knows what I'm good at and the things we need to work on.
–Miles Nagel, student
More often, though, they cite the confidence that comes from moving as a team.
"Because I know the teacher, and if I didn't know the teacher I would be a little nervous," Aislin Wicke said.
Teachers see kids who wouldn't share for months already taking part. "We have kids that are, right now, they've found their friends and they're sharing out in class, and they know it's a safe place," teacher Tori Carson said.
School administrators plan to evaluate this experiment. If they see results, other grades may start looping next year.
The downside? Primarily, issues with a teacher or a classmate exist for two years instead of one. So far, they've been able to work through that.
Email: dwimmer@ksl.com
