The system of public education in the United States lacks responsiveness to differing maturation rates and learning styles of young children. U.S. public education focuses more on satisfying governmental mandates and a common curriculum measured through standardized tests than on addressing the individual learning needs of each student. Researchers have suggested that when teachers spend more than one school year with a student, they have the opportunity to recognize the unique learning style of each child and make appropriate curricular accommodations to fit the needs of the child. Evidence has indicated that education in the looped classroom is more responsive to individual differences in cognitive development. In Cuba looping is a nationwide practice where students remain with the same teacher throughout their elementary school years. The purpose of this mixed method triangulation study was to explore how looping may be used as a tool for improving teacher responsiveness to differing maturation rates in public elementary education. The researcher used a mixed method approach to compare the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from this study. Looping as practiced in Cuba relies on Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory that emphasizes the impact of the environment on learning. The researcher analyzed annual evaluations scores of 1000 students for the quantitative research method portion of the study, using samples collected from four provinces in Cuba. Through the quantitative analysis, the researcher found that race, gender, and province all have a significant relationship with mean mathematics and language arts scores, but there were no difference significant differences in variances for all pairwise comparisons. Through the qualitative analysis, the researcher explored several themes, including that looping conveys educational effectiveness as a whole, and that looping addresses students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and results in good teacher-parent-student relationships. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]