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Normally when students start the school year, they expect to get new everything. New teachers, new classmates, new schedules, new school supplies, new classes and new grades. But for some students, that’s not the case. Some students, to their delight or dismay, get the same teacher yet again.
Roree Whitaker, ‘26, had Anne Ramsay for math in seventh grade then again in eighth grade and Laura Brogden for Latin in ninth grade and tenth grade.
Whitaker liked having teachers for more than one year for many reasons.
“I believe you build more connections with people and then also a lot of the people will take the class again, [and] they’ll end up having the same teacher again,” Whitaker said. “So you get to have the people and your teacher [again] and then you get used to the learning style. I like it, I like it a lot.”
Studies done by economists in Indiana and North Carolina show that having the same teacher for multiple years benefits students.
“I think that my teachers, [whom] I’ve had multiple years in a row get to know me and get to know my learning style more,” Whitaker said. “I’m more open to talking to them about my problems or if I can’t do the work.”
Whitaker, if she had to choose, would not want all of her classes to have the same teacher for multiple years.
“Math and Latin… are the classes that I would like [have teachers for multiple years in] because math is hard and Latin has a lot of group activities,” Whitaker said.
Zel Auger, ‘26, had Tara Ligon for Latin in seventh and eighth grades, Katie Sullivan for science in eighth and tenth grades and Anthony Nims for choir and ensemble for three years. Auger thinks that having a teacher for more than one year is a positive experience.
“[There is a] sense of consistency, you don’t have to get to know a new person, they already know your name, and you can form a better bond with them as a person,” Auger said.
The term that is used when teachers move up a grade with their students is “looping.”
“Looping” is completely free and while it is not exactly what happens to some students at WHHS, it reaps similar if not the same benefits.
“Having teachers for more than one year [benefits my academics because] I’m more motivated to actually get my work done and primarily study more for tests,” Auger said.Auger thinks that having the same teacher for more than one year impacts his experience in their class.
“I think it makes the class more fun, more interesting and less like, ‘I just want to not be in this classroom.’ It’s more like, ‘Okay, oh, maybe I’ll have a system because I know them pretty wel,l’” Auger said.
Trinity Charles, ‘26, had John Caliguri for Orchestra for eighth through tenth grade and Samantha Gerwe-Perkins for Newswriting and Yearbook in eighth and ninth grade.
Charles, in comparison to Auger and Whitaker, thinks that it depends on the teacher whether having the same teacher for multiple years would be good or bad.
“I think it really depends on the teacher, at least for [my math teacher] I was okay with having her this year because I knew her syllabus would be the same, but that’s not always the case,” Charles said, “For more than one year, I think for teachers like G-P and Mr. C it is really helpful because it’s kind of rough starting with a new eight-hour schedule every single year, so it’s kind of nice to have people you get to see every day that you’re familiar with.”
While practicing “looping” or things like it might benefit some students, it’s not for everyone.
“I think that’s definitely good for kindergarten and elementary school but now that I’m in high school, I do appreciate having different teachers and new faces every couple of hours,” Charles said.
However, some students might not want to get stuck with a teacher they don’t like.
“I don’t like some of my teachers, it’s pretty obvious [that] sometimes you want to get a new one,” Shixuan Zhao, ‘26, said.
“To be honest, sometimes I get a teacher that I don’t like, so I wouldn’t want to have them multiple times,” Iyad Lidiri, ‘27, said.
Nevertheless, Adam Grant claims in an opinion article for The New York Times, “In the data, looping actually had the greatest upsides for less effective teachers — and lower-achieving students. Building an extended relationship gave them the opportunity to grow together.”
Overall, feedback on having teachers for multiple years has been positive.
“When teachers stay with their students longer, they can see beyond the surface and recognize the brilliance beneath,” Grant said.
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