Last year was a busy year for Eden Prairie Schools. Students will return to a number of new programs Tuesday when school starts up again. Here’s the recap:

World language in the elementary schools

This fall, students in all elementary schools will receive Spanish language instruction. Spanish was selected as the language after a survey was done among more than 1,000 parents in the district. Of that group, 90 percent “said they’d welcome the expansion of the World Language program into elementary schools,” according to the district Web site. Eighty-two percent of parents chose Spanish as the language they want taught.

The program is a way to fulfill the district’s goal of having students be able to communicate effectively in at least two languages upon graduation. In addition to adding Spanish language instruction time to the elementary school day, Chinese will be added as an offering at Central Middle School. By 2010, all student in grades K-6 will be learning Spanish. For middle school, they will have the option of taking Spanish, French, German or Chinese and by high school Japanese and American Sign Language will be added to that list.

Forest Hills Design Team

Students will see a number of changes at Forest Hills this year as part of recommendations to address student needs. Among the changes: More instruction time dedicated to reading and math, more parent volunteers and learning specialists in the classroom, more extended day programs for students with free transportation provided, more looping and multi-age classrooms and the creation of a Family Service Center to help parents.

Looping at Oak Point

Eleven classrooms of sixth-graders are to loop from fifth grade this fall. Next year the plan had been that every fifth-grader would stay with the same class or loop into sixth grade. However, after getting feedback from parents and staff, the district’s Looping Task Force recommended allowing parents and staff the choice of participating in looping.

According to the district Web site:

“The number of classrooms will be determined by the number of staff and parents who want to loop.

“Looping students will be able to opt out based on their educational needs, if needed.

“Looping classrooms will be balanced (i.e. student performance levels, elementary school of origin, gender, race, special programs).

“Non-looping classrooms will use alternative strategies that will also create the conditions for long-term, sustained, learning relationships over two years. The specific strategies will be determined by the Detail Team as they meet between August 2008 and January 2009.”

Bottom line, looping will be a choice next year, but strategies for those students are yet to be determined.