We have known for years that the relationship between a teacher and a student plays a major role in how well that student does in school. I did some research on this myself. But what happens when a child is taught by the same teacher for a second time? What does that do to their performance and behaviour? A recent study shows that repeated teacher-student combinations ensure better grades, less truancy and fewer suspensions.

For an EdWorkingPaper, I found via Dylan Wilam, Leigh Wedenoja, and colleagues looked at data from Tennessee and found that students who had a second teacher performed better and behaved better on average than students who had new teachers each time. The effect was small but consistent: test scores improved, and the likelihood of absenteeism and disciplinary action decreased. Immigrant boys, in particular, benefited from a second year with the same teacher.

What is interesting about this? In practice, this happens more often than you might think, but usually by accident. In some schools, teachers teach in multiple classes or move up to a higher group. This means that some students get the same teacher twice without planning. However, the research shows that even this unintentional repetition already has a positive effect. It makes you wonder what would happen if schools were to use this deliberately!

The researchers compared the benefits of a repeat teacher with the impact of other educational measures. An extra year with the same teacher has about the same effect on school performance as a big jump in teacher quality. And then we haven’t even mentioned the social aspect: students who already know their teacher feel safer in the classroom, know what to expect and have a better bond.

An interesting finding is that not only the ‘repeated’ students benefit from this, but also their classmates. The results are better for everyone in classes where many students already know their teacher. The explanation? Teachers need less time to explain routines – again, something already known – and can respond more quickly to what students need.

What can we learn from this? Schools should think more about ‘looping’ – deliberately having the same teacher return to a group of students.

Abstract of the study :

We examine the dynamic nature of student-teacher match quality by studying the effect of having a teacher for more than one year. Using data from Tennessee and panel methods, we find that having a repeat teacher improves achievement and decreases absences, truancy, and suspensions. These results are robust to a range of tests for student and teacher sorting. High-achieving students benefit most academically and boys of color benefit most behaviorally. Effects increase with the share of repeat students in a class suggesting that classroom assignment policies intended to promote sustained student-teacher relationships such as looping may have even larger benefits.