Looping: does keeping the same secondary school mathematics teacher lead to better outcomes?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Previous research has suggested that pupils may benefit from retaining the same teacher for more than one academic year, leading to better relationships, lower levels of absence and higher test scores. This has led some to suggest that leaders should consider so-called ‘looping’ when devising their school timetable. We provide new evidence on how looping relates to an array of pupil, teacher and class outcomes. Using rich international data from the TALIS video study, we typically find small associations, particularly when ‘looping’ is considered at the class-level. We thus conclude that looping is probably not something that school leaders should either purposefully avoid or dogmatically pursue.