412 Looping Looping is a relatively unknown teaching practice in the United States. This practice is where a teacher follows a group of similar aged students for two or more years. For example, a teacher could begin with third graders, move onto fourth grade with them, then begin again in the third grade with a new group. Other names for this practice are multi-year grouping, continuous learning, continuous progress and persisting groups.
Many people confuse looping with having a multi-aged classroom.
The two practices are different because in looping, the students are of a similar age. Learning is focused around a certain grade level. A multi-aged classroom might have second, third, and fourth graders all in one class, similar to the days of a one room schoolhouse, and is academically more complicated. Although looping is a new practice in the United States, it is not exactly a new innovation. It began in the early 1900s with an Austrian educator named Rudolf Steiner.