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Benefits of platooning:

Teacher is a professional in a course of study; trained

Teacher is passionate

Students learn a tremendous amount

Downside:

Students grades are not up to par

Hard to form realtionships

Benefits of lopping:

Teacher stays with same class

Know students behaviors

Form realtionships

Downside:

Not meeting new people or not being able to form a relationship with specific people

Can not have the opportunity to meet other teachers

Students do not get to see other methods and styles of teaching

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There are many advantages and disadvantages to Platooning and Looping.

Platooning Advantages:
- Teachers get more advantage and knowledge in one area, allows for specializing in a specific area
- teachers do not have to see students for a long period of time

Platooning Disadvantages:
- can't focus on individual students
- teacher student bond is not very strong
-higher suspensions and absences

Looping Advantages:
- teachers know their students better, understand their strengths and weaknesses
-strong relationship between teachers, students, and students family
- Teacher is with students for a longer period of time (years)

Looping Disadvantages:
- If a student is struggling with teacher and how they teach they as sadly stuck with them
-students struggle to be okay with change

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A benefit to platooning is that students get a variety of instructors.  Students are able to experience different types of teaching and learn through different styles.  One drawback to platooning would be that some students might not be comfortable switching classes.  Shy students might only be comfortable with one teacher and not feel comfortable switching to another teacher.  Switching will force them to become comfortable with 2 teachers which could be a drawback until they feel more comfortable.

Benefits to looping would be that teachers will know their students and adjust to their learning styles over the two years. They will be able to work with students for a long period of time and know their strengths and weaknesses. One setback would be that if a teacher/students/parents do not get along, it is going to be difficult on them to have another year of teaching with the same environment. It does. not allow students to experience variety.

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Benefits of looping:
-Teachers and students build a relationship
-Teachers know students strengths and weaknesses
-Stronger relationships with families too
-Makes teachers think outside of the box since they have the same group of students for two years they are teaching a different grade level each year

Drawbacks of looping:
-If student doesn't learn from the teachers teaching style they have to have them again the next year
-Students adapt less to change
-Teachers can't be skilled/comfortable at every level

Benefits of platooning:
-Teachers have more knowledge in one area
-Students get to work with multiple teachers a day

Drawbacks of platooning:
-Teachers had fewer interactions with each student
-Scores were worse than when taught by a single teacher
-Suspensions and absences were higher
-Less able to tailor instruction to each student

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There are both several advantages and disadvantages to looping and platooning.

Looping Advantages-
-Teachers are with the same group of students for 2 years.
-Teachers already know students and this can create a strong relationship.

Looping Disadvantage-
-If students dislike a teacher, they are stuck with that teacher for another year

Platooning Advantages-
-Teachers are highly experienced in one content area.
-Teachers do not see their students for long periods of time

Platooning Disadvantage-
-Not beneficial for primary students
-Students don't have as strong of a relationship

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I had not previously heard both of these terms before, I had heard of looping but never heard of platooning. My first few years of teaching I actually did some of both. I taught 5th and 6th grade Language Arts and Social Studies. Being a small school, I would have the same group of kids in 5th grade and then I would have the same group in 6th grade. Our school previously did this all the way down to 1st/2nd grade. It seems like a good idea to have a teacher that is specialized and it is also good to have students make multi-year relationships with their students. It is also good because you know what they truly need to be taught for the next year.
On the flip side, looping can be bad if the students do not like the teacher. I can see the drawback and benefits of both methods.

Looping - teaching the same students for multiple years.
Platooning - specializing in a school subject

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The article details two different approaches to education - looping and platooning. Looping is where students stay with the same teacher for two years and do not switch classes. Platooning is where teachers teach a specialty - something they have extended knowledge or experience with.

I have no experience with looping at all. I am certified in English 7-12 and have taught only as low as grade 6. I can see that there would be some nice advantages as the student-teacher relationship can be established and nurtured for a longer time and can become a true relationship. The teacher can get to truly know the students and work to develop plans and curriculums for certain students and abilities. The teacher would also have routines and rules established and less time would have to be spent on those items the second year.

As far as disadvantages, the student and teacher relationship could be damaged if there is a personality issue or behavior issue. Teachers who are not up to task could affect the learning and the grades of the students. Students also enjoy a break now and then from the same teacher day in and day out and that would not be a regular practice in looping. Additionally, what happens if a teacher leaves during the process or goes on a leave of some kind - this would affect the learning.

Platooning is more familiar with me as I have a certification in a particular subject. Much of my experience is in high school so this always happens in high school. As I said earlier, I have not taught below grade 6.

An advantage of platooning can be the deeper knowledge of a subject area by the teacher, which could create a deeper education for the students. In upper grades, I think platooning is needed as the subject areas get more in depth and it is not as easy to teach all of the information that the students need. In the lower grades, students can gain from the specific knowledge, which deepens the students' experience.

As a disadvantage, students lack the instant connection with students that is fostered with looping. Having different teachers with different expectations can sometimes be difficult for students. This can be difficult for the teachers too as they could be called the 'mean' teacher or the 'strict' teacher because they may have rules and expectations that other teachers don't follow. Also, when you have students for only one class and one year, you have a hard time building off of what was learned the year before.

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The article introduced two terms related to how best to teach students. "Platooning" is when students switch teachers for each class who specialize in particular subjects. "Looping" is when students have the same teacher for at least two years in a row. According to the article, there were benefits and drawbacks of each.

The sole benefit of "platooning" mentioned was that there is a potential for students to score better on standardized tests with a teacher who specializes in that subject area. However, there were several drawbacks. Due to fewer interactions with students, tests scores decreased, vulnerable students suffered, there were more suspensions and absences, and because of the greater number of students teachers were unable to provide individualized instruction.

The benefit of "looping" is that teachers are able to become more familiar with students and build stronger relationships with them. The relationships established correlate to higher student achievement and/or test scores and an increase in students' overall wellbeing. There were no drawbacks to this grouping stated in the article. Although, some may say that this creates an attachment to a single teacher and will make for a more difficult transition later in their academic years. Teachers may also argue that they not be able to form relationships with every student (reasons may vary) and they would be a better fit for a different teacher.

While it is debated which of the two is the better way to teacher students, the findings of this study are important because they emphasize that student-teacher relationships matter.

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Platooning is when students move from class to class to a teacher that specializes or is mastery on a specific subject.  The pro is that a teacher is knowledgable on the content and can drive instruction and have many more strategies to support student learning.  However, the drawback is there is less connection or relationship with the students.  I was recently in this position. I was teaching 4th grade religion and Social Studies, 5th Grade math, 6th Grade Science, and 7-8 Computer programming.  It was hard because I felt like I truly couldn't connect with the students because I was none of their homeroom teachers. Also, connecting with parents was hard because they would go to their child's homeroom teacher and have questions for me and I would get second hand about what the questions were.  It was tough.

Looping is when students are assigned a teacher for 2 years and learn all subjects from that teacher.  I too experienced this as well.  My former school, I was able to keep my students all day and taught them all subjects.  I felt better at ease because I got to know my students in and out.  I felt like family by midyear and the other students accepted their peers like family, too.  You were able to form relationships with the parents quicker that way as well.  You were in constant contact with all your parents because you handled all of their subjects. I was able to be there emotionally for one student in particular when he would have his meltdowns and I had strategies in place when those took place.  The drawback was when I took a day off. He was off. He really became dependent on me.  I will tell you after 2 years with a group it is truly hard to leave them.

My personal experience and my daughter's experience are the same. She went from an all day one teacher to switching classes for each subject and she had a hard time adjusting to it this year academically and emotionally.

I will say, that teaching time is lost when students are switching. They take a little while to settle in their seats and get prepared for the next class. There was a lot more more interruptions for instance a student forgets their math notebook in their locker.

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Platooning is an advantage for the classroom/grade level because the teacher becomes the specialist of a subject area.  Students get to have various teachers throughout the day for various subject areas.  Platooning is also a disadvantage because the study from the article noted that with platooning there are fewer interactions between teacher and student(s).  The example they gave in the article were brief check-ins related to an incident that happened earlier in the day (i.e., hitting their head on something).  When students are switching classes, all of the teachers are normally not in the loop about events/situations that occur in the other class.  The article also mentioned that with platooning teachers are unable to differentiate their instruction as much for the needs of their students.  When looking at the results of the study that was completed, students who were the most vulnerable (students with learning disabilities or low achieving students) were impacted the most from platooning.

Looping is an advantage for students in the classroom because they keep the same teacher for 2 years in a row.  They do not switch teachers for subject areas or for grade levels.  With looping, the teacher is able to build upon existing relationships (in the 2nd year) and more social emotional content can be taught in the classroom. A disadvantage to looping is having relationships that clash between a student and the teacher. Teachers could also be bias or have special treatment for specific students that could have a negative impact on other students for consecutive years. A classroom that incorporates looping goes to show that knowing people well will create a good classroom environment.

I have personally experienced  both platooning and looping in my teaching experience.  I did enjoy platooning and teaching only ELA to all of my 4th graders during student teaching.  I did notice however that I was unaware of situations/events that were occurring until after the fact.  I did feel more pressure with teaching a specific subject area though (not sure if it was because it was my first experience with it or not).  The school that I currently teach at does incorporate looping with their Preschool class.  If students attended last year, they have the same teachers for this year too.  I agree that relationships and social emotional content is huge when dealing with looping.  About half of my Preschool class attended last year.  I was nervous for this, but I do feel like my teaching team and I have established a great relationship with our kids.  I already have a ton of ideas that help with specific behaviors which is fantastic!  Not only are the relationships with my kids solid but the relationships with their families are too.  I love looping and would love to see the impacts of it in another grade level besides Preschool.

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Platooning is when teachers specialize in a subject, which I have also heard called 'departmentalizing.'  From a teacher standpoint, I think platooning is beneficial since it allows teachers to be fluent in one content area versus being a 'jack-of-all-trades.'  However the negatives of this model is that students are not able to make strong relationships with their teachers since they only see them for an hour a day.  In a study, it showed the absences were greater and test scores were lower compared to students in non-platooning schools.

Looping is when teachers are with the same group of students for 2 years.  This benefit is that the teacher and the students are already familiar with each other and have a stronger relationship.  There was a study conducted that proved that looping is a positive and effective strategy for students.

It goes to show that relationships between teachers and students is more important than the test scores. Where students are happy and thriving, makes for a better learning environment. I am shocked that platooning had a negative effect since it gives teachers the opportunity to be their most effective and teach a higher quality of content. I almost had the opportunity to loop with my kindergarteners into 1st grade this year, but the old teacher came back. I was looking forward to that, but I heard those students are doing well anyway!

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Platooning is a disadvantage for primary students because the relationship between teacher and student is vital at such a young age. There is time during transition of subjects, snack time, lining up for lunch or specials that these students talk to their teacher. As research indicates this relationship has a huge impact on academic success.

Platooning is beneficial for the middle/high school students because while relationships between teachers and students are important, teenagers’ moods are constantly changing, and they need versatility in their day. Also, the dept of knowledge increases for the subject areas so teachers need to specialize in their subject to allow for deeper understanding and complexity of ideas.

Looping – disadvantage – having a student/teacher relationship that clashed. Teacher prejudices carrying over to the following year and those prejudices hinder the child from growing or succeeding.

Looping -  advantage – knowing students’ academic needs immediately when the school year starts if it is the 2nd year with the student.  Less time reviewing material and learning teacher’s teaching style in the beginning of the year because the teacher will know the material covered

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Platooning is something that was executed in my field placement my sophomore year of college. The teacher had her core class, but the students switched for social studies, math, english, and science. The teacher told me platooning was difficult for her because she had to enter the grades for her core class, but did not grade them and assess them in their other subjects. Parents would question her about the grades of her students in these other classes and the teacher would either have to talk to the other teachers before conferences or tell them that she did not know why they were not doing well in that class. The students liked platooning and being able to move around from class to class throughout the day like they were high school students. I think platooning can have both benefits and negatives. The school I was at just started platooning, but I feel with time platooning can become beneficial to both teachers and students, especially since teachers can perfect their content and become the masters of it.

Looping is a concept that interests me from reading about it, but I would like to hear more about from teachers who practice it. I feel that keeping the same students could be beneficial because as the teacher you know who they are as a student and the teacher can work with them more the following year to make the necessary improvements. I feel for students platooning can be beneficial as well because they are already comfortable and know the teacher that they have. I feel platooning would be beneficial with younger students because they do not have to adjust to a brand new teacher and can be ready for the content sooner than when they have a new teacher. For teachers, platooning can be difficult because they are switching from teaching something for a year to something completely new.

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The article focused on two different teaching strategies-platooning and looping.

A school uses platooning when teachers "specialize" in one subject and teach it to multiple classes. The benefit to platooning is that each teacher becomes an expert in the subject they are teaching, thus the quality of instruction goes up and grades follow. The research, however, disagreed. When schools using platooning were tracked it was found that test scores actually decreased. This was caused by the lack of teacher-student time spent together which lead to a lack of teacher-student relationship.

The second strategy, looping, is when one teacher moves with a class from one year to the next. This increases teacher-student interaction and strengthens the teacher-student bond. The article points to research that shows increases in tests scores when schools implement looping, thus validating this as a positive strategy.

I found the drop in test scores in schools that utilize platooning surprising. I certainly understand the teacher-student relationship isn't as strong, but I thought the benefit of the teacher being an "expert" in their curriculum would outweigh the lack of personal relationship. I taught two half day kindergarten classes in the past, and loved the ability to run a lesson in the morning classroom and modify what didn't work for the afternoon class. I was a much more effective teacher the second time around, and I expected platooning to offer that benefit as well.

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My first year as a full-time teacher was ruined by looping. Although I agree that this is a generally great practice at the elementary level, keep in mind, if something happens to the teacher who looped with the class, it is nearly impossible for the teacher who replaced them to fill their shoes. My first year, I  was that teacher. Their previous teacher looped from 4th to 5th with a problem class, then left for Las Cruses (NM) in September.

The students frequently reminded me that I was not the previous teacher and intentionally caused problems. No learning occurred. All of my time was spent on survival. Looping, although a great practice, should be limited to stable teachers who intend to stay with the class. If a teacher intends to advance his/her career by moving around, looping should be avoided

Platooning should be avoided at the lower levels for obvious reasons, but, as the students get older, platooning becomes inevitable. It is not a matter of will of the teacher. As the students get older, the subject matter gets more complex. It may take a long time for a middle or high school teacher to attain the expertise to loop with students. Although I could teach 5th grade math, I wouldn't be comfortable teaching 7th grade math, and 6th grade math is a gamble.

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After learning about platooning it allows kids to have the opportunity to work with multiple teachers each day. The teachers specialize in a particular subject, such as math or English and students switch teachers for each class.  It also gives teachers the opportunity to work with a range of students. A drawback is that platooning shrinks instructional time. The students and teachers are moving around so much that it increases transition times. It limits the teacher’s ability to differentiate their teaching in trying to figure out who needs more one- on- one time. Not seeing them more than one time throughout the day makes this hard. Once reading about looping I found out that it is when students keep the same teacher for two years in a row. They do not switch teachers for each subject and don’t switch each year. This allows grown and social interaction between the teacher and the students. A drawback is it restricts the ability of the teacher to perfect a lesson through repetition. Also, a teacher and student may not “hit” it off and their relationship could cause conflict and tension. If the teacher is missing vital information for their students it may be harder for the next teacher to correct.

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There are a lot of benefits of platooning, some of which help out the teachers tremendously. With platooning teachers don't have to plan as much content and material, they are able to focus on one subject and lesson plan just that subject. The teachers are also much better trained in those content areas. They have either focused primarily in one subject in their University or they started only putting their efforts into teaching one subject at their school. Unfortunately, the research is showing platooning not working. The students scores are not improving-they are getting worse. Suspensions and absences were higher in schools and students were struggling even more.

The benefits of looping are that teachers get to stay with their class year after year. They know exactly what to expect and who will be in their classes each year. They will form a special bond and get to know each other over the years. While this is seemingly wonderful for some students it could be detrimental for others. Sometimes students and teachers just don't click, their styles and personalities just don't align. With looping these students are stuck. Another drawback with looping is it would be extremely time consuming and hard to re-plan everything every single year to go with the new grade level.

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As a teacher, I've actually experienced both "platooning" and "looping." My first experience was with platooning in first grade where I taught the ELA subjects. I, without a doubt, felt that I was a better teacher and taught the content much better than I do, now, as a self contained teacher. I was able to concentrate solely on one subject when planning and had more time to create more specific and level appropriate content for small group instruction. Yes, I had a larger number of students to teach, but I felt more adequately prepared.

Another year, I looped from teaching only 1st grade ELA, with the same group of students, to teaching self-contained 2nd grade. I went into the year knowing an extensively background of not just the academics of each student, but also the home and family background. However, even with this background knowledge of each of the students and my own relationships with the families, I found it to be one of the most exhausting and strenuous years, yet. Trying to keep up with the planning of so many subjects, much less small group instruction, was more than one teacher could undertake.  An important note too, that the article did not mention, is that when a teacher is with the same students ALL day, much less- all year, it can become tiresome for both the students and teachers. Let's face it, there are some students that we as teachers need a break from, and they need a break from us too! Looping does not allow that luxury, whereas, platooning does.

I can only speak from personal experience. And, I can see both sides. However, I am more interested to see a combination of both- for example, the same Math and ELA teachers platooning and looping for two consecutive years???

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The benefits of platooning are that teachers can take the time to plan and execute lessons that have extra time devoted to planning for just one subject.  If you are an expert in just one area, your passion for that area will come across to your students and the effectiveness of your teaching and planning.

With looping, teachers can build on the relationships that have been formed the previous year. There is no "getting to know you" time at the beginning of the year. The teacher knows the students and the students know the teacher. If everyone is on the same page, that eliminates the time that it takes to go over policies and procedures. For those that loop together, it can be a seamless transition with just a few reminders as to how everything works. More time can be spent on instruction and the teacher already knows how the students work and their strengths and weaknesses.

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The benefits of “platooning” is that teachers who are certified in their content areas, are normally masteries of that specific area. The students are getting much more in depth information than they would from someone who doesn’t know much about the subject matter. Platooning gives students the opportunity to go to different teachers and teachers have the opportunity to work with a range of students from day to day. The drawbacks of platooning is that the studies show that kids were more likely to misbehave and experienced more suspensions and absences from school. Test scores were also reported to be lower than those that remained with one teacher all day long. In contrast with “looping”, it might be harder for teachers to form relationships with their students to know how they learn and what they’re interested in.

The benefits of “looping” is that the teacher has had these students over the course of many years and forms relationships with them. The teacher has the ability to learn about the child and adhere to their learning style. The teacher can also help students grow in their abilities within the content areas,knowing what was taught the year before or the day before. The drawbacks is that to get teachers to be certified in all areas would be challenging. Teachers normally have their niche and want to keep it that way. Students can’t experience other teachers either during “looping”. Students wouldn’t have exposure to the many different teaching styles that are out there.

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The benefits of platooning are that teachers are specialized in one subject area instead of all of them. They believed if a teacher was specialized they could work really hard on that one subject and raise test scores. However, the drawback of that was test scores actually fell dramatically. Students do not get as much time with teachers and those relationships are harder to establish and personalized learning was harder to create.

The benefits of looping is that with students having the same teacher two or three years in a row they form a deeper relationship. Studies showed that students in a looping class did score higher on testing. Building relationships with students is always beneficial and by looping you are given more of that chance. I could see a drawback of this being that students are not getting to experience different styles of teachers and if they don't like the teacher they are stuck with them.

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I think a benefit would be that the teacher knows exactly what the students strengths and difficulties would be in a subject and therefore could comprise their lessons accordingly. A drawback to both is if the teacher only teaches a certain way and the student is not learning from the teacher. The teacher should find a way to get through to her students.

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Two studies on how best to teach elementary schools students - one on the popular trend of "platooning" and one on the far less common practice of "looping" - at first would seem totally unrelated other than the fact that they both use silly words with double-o's. "Platooning" refers to having teachers specialize in a particular subject, such as math or English, and young students switch teachers for each class. "Looping" is a term used when kids keep the same teacher for two years in a row. They don't switch teachers for each subject and don't switch each year.

One economist found that platooning might be harming kids and two other economists found that looping is quite beneficial. The reason one doesn't work and the other does may be related.

"These studies are important because they tell us that teacher-student relationships matter," said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is writing a book on the research about students' relationships with their teachers and how well they learn. "I think schools in many ways have put the cart before the horse. What they've done is they want to jump right into academics and really dismiss or minimize the importance of relationships."
Related: Project-based learning and standardized tests don't mix
Less than a decade ago, elementary school principals began pushing their teachers to specialize in different subjects, particularly beginning in third grade, in part because of the pressure to score better on standardized tests. The theory was that the best math teachers, who already had a great track record of improving students' math scores, could reach more students and that specialization would help everyone learn more.

Harvard University's Roland Fryer set out to test just that in an experiment, published in the June 2018 issue of the American Economic Review. Fryer convinced the Houston school district to randomly assign 23 elementary schools to adopt specialized teaching for two years, from the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2015. From first through fifth grade, each teacher taught fewer subjects, perhaps just reading or reading and social studies, but was responsible for more students. Sometimes the students moved classrooms. Other times, the teachers rotated and the students stayed put.

Then Fryer compared test scores of the kids in the "platooned" schools with those in traditional schools in which a main classroom teacher continued to teach most subjects. To ensure he was comparing apples with apples, Fryer compared pairs of elementary schools that had nearly identical test scores before the experiment started.

After each of the two years, both reading and math scores of the kids who'd been taught by specialists were worse than those who'd been taught by a single teacher. Even the low-stakes science tests scores were worse. More troubling: suspensions and absences were suddenly higher in the schools that tried platooning. The most vulnerable students were especially harmed. Special needs students scored three times worse on high-stakes tests and two times worse on low-stakes tests compared to students who were taught traditionally. In surveys, specialized teachers said they were less able to tailor instruction for each child (advocates of personalized learning, take note!) and they were much less likely to report an increase in job satisfaction or performance than elementary school teachers who spent all day with their students.
Related: 20 judgments a teacher makes in 1 minute and 28 seconds
It seems that the ostensible benefits of specialization were outweighed by the fact teachers had fewer interactions with each student. No one was minding the whole student throughout the whole day or providing continuous emotional support, keeping an eye on a kid who had an argument in the morning or whose mouth was achy from a loose tooth.

"[P]upils are not pins, and the production of human capital is far more complex than assembling automobiles," Fryer wrote, calling his Houston experiment a "cautionary tale."

Eventually the subjects that children need to learn, from physics to history, become more complex, and at some point teachers cannot be expected to teach all subjects. Across the 34 most developed countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development, teacher specialization begins around sixth grade, on average. Still, Fryer noted that five countries consistently use specialized teachers earlier, as young as third grade.

Yet six countries including Austria, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Latvia and Israel, do just the opposite. Not only don't they use specialized teachers in elementary school at all, the average teacher in these countries stays with the same group of elementary school children for at least three years.

Two economists from Montana State University and the University of South Carolina studied what happened in North Carolina when students and teachers spent two years together. They identified all the students who happened to be assigned to the same teacher for a second year between third and fifth grade over the course of 16 years, from 1997 to 2013. This was usually by chance and not a policy to keep kids together for two years in a row under the same teacher.

Published in the June 2018 issue of the Economics of Education Review, the researchers found that this increased student-teacher familiarity led to higher test scores, albeit a small increase, after controlling for students' prior academic achievement and teacher differences. The benefits of getting the same teacher twice in a row were largest for minority students. And when a large share of classmates had the same teacher as before, even kids who were new to the class posted higher than expected test scores. That suggests when people know each other well, it's a better classroom environment for learning.

The researchers Andrew Hill and Daniel Jones argue their study is evidence that the low-cost solution of "looping" - assigning the same class of students to the same teacher for two years in a row - is effective.

UCLA's Howard says that qualitative researchers have documented the influence of relationships on learning for over two decades. A 1997 study found that early teacher-child relationships at the start of elementary school determined how kids felt about school and performed academically. A 2004 study found higher academic performance for middle school students who participated in an elementary school program to foster relationships. And a May 2018 study found that when teachers are antagonistic, college students learn less.

"You can't get to the content if the relationship and the social-emotional well-being piece is not being attended to first," Howard says. "Any time you get into feelings, that's more complicated to capture. But it's still as important."

Now that quantitative studies are bolstering these findings with large datasets and more rigorous randomized controlled trials, Howard hopes that more elementary school principals will take notice. The next challenge is to translate these findings into classrooms so that students can benefit too.

This story about teacher-student relationships was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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Two studies point to the power of teacher-student relationships to boost learning - The Hechinger Report

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Get important education news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox Two studies on how best to teach elementary schools students - one on the popular trend of "platooning" and one on the far less common practice of "looping" - at first would seem totally unrelated other than the fact that they both use silly words with double-o's.