Links to research on the benefits of smaller classesSpyros Konstantopoulos and Vicki Chun, "What Are the Long-Term Effects of Small Classes on the Achievement Gap? Evidence from the Lasting Benefits Study," American Journal of Education 116, November 2009.
Peter Blatchford et.al. "Do low attaining and younger students benefit most from small classes? Results from a systematic observation study of class size effects on pupil classroom engagement and teacher pupil interaction," paper delivered to the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting 2008. "... the main implication of this study is that smaller classes can benefit all pupils in terms of individual, active attention from teachers, but that the lower attaining pupils in particular can benefit from small classes at secondary level."
Peter Muennig and Steven H. Woolf, "Health and Economic Benefits of Reducing the Number of Students per Classroom in US Primary Schools," American Journal of Public Health, published online September 27, 2007. Conclusion. Reducing class sizes may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical interventions, with large savings in health care costs and almost two years of additional life for students who were in smaller classes in the early grades. See also Oct. 16, 2007 summary in Slate magazine by Dr. Sydney Spiesel.
Philip Babcock and Julian R. Betts, "Reduced-class Distinctions: Effort, Ability and the Education Production Function," NBER Working paper 14777, March 2009. Results indicate that small classes elicit enhanced effort and engagement by disadvantaged students.
Sarah Theule Lubienski et.al., "Achievement Differences and School Type: The Role of School Climate, Teacher Certification, and Instruction," American Journal of Education 115, November 2008. This multilevel analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics data on over 270,000 fourth and eighth graders in over 10,000 schools finds that smaller class size is significantly correlated with achievement.
Thomas Dee and Martin West, "The Non-Cognitive Returns to Class Size, " NBER Working Paper 13994, 2008. "Our results indicate that smaller classes in 8th grade lead to improvements in measures of student engagement ....Using the estimated earnings impact of these non-cognitive skills and the direct cost of a class-size reduction, the implied internal rate of return from an 8th-grade class-size reduction is 4.6 percent overall, but 7.9 percent in urban schools."
Elizabeth Graue, et.al. "The Wisdom of Class-Size Reduction," American Educational Research Journal, September 2007, Vol. 44, No. 3. "SAGE in particular, and CSR in general, allows teachers the space to create meaningful learning opportunities for students. Giving teachers support to develop new strategies for teaching smaller groups makes it more likely."
Douglas D. Ready and Valerie E. Lee, "Optimal Context Size in Elementary Schools: Disentangling the Effects of Class Size and School Size," Brookings Papers on Education Policy,- 2006/2007, pp. 99-135. Study finds that class size rather than school size makes a positive difference, and suggests that"if children remained in the same elementary school for five or six years ... differences would be very substantial: a roughly 10-point advantage for children in small over large classes by the end of sixth grade, or 4.5 months of additional learning."
Fatih Unlu, "California Class Size Reduction Reform: New Findings from the NAEP," Princeton Univ., Nov. 2005; Study showing large gains from smaller classes in California.
Jeremy D. Finn et.al., “Small Classes in the Early Grades, Academic Achievement, and Graduating From High School," Journal of Educational Psychology, 2005. www.apa.org/journals/releases/edu972214.pdf
Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education, "Identifying and Implementing Educational Practices Supported by Rigorous Evidence: A User Friendly Guide," Dec. 2003. Class size reduction is identified as one of only four education reforms proven to increase learning.
SERVE, "How Class Size Makes a Difference,” 2002. One of the best and most readable summaries of the research, prepared by the Regional Educational Laboratory for the Southeast, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. and "A Parent’s Guide to Class-Size Reduction," 2003. A useful introduction, including suggestions on actions parents can take to encourage class-size reduction at their schools.
Jan O’Neill and Deborah Mercier, "Incredible Shrinking Class Size," National Staff Development Council, 2003 . Describes how one school in Wisconsin reduced class size without additional funding.
Jeremy D. Finn, “Small Classes in American Schools: Research, Practice, and Politics,” Phi Beta Kappan, March 2002. A summary of the research by one of the premier STAR investigators.
STAR studies in Tennessee Formidable results from the historic large scale experiment in the history of education reform.
SAGE studies in Wisconsin; results from class size reduction in Wisconsin public schools from 1997 to 2004.
Bruce Biddle and David Berliner, "What Research Says About Small Classes and Their Effects." Wested, 2002.
Alan B. Krueger and Diane M. Whitmore, "Would Smaller Classes Help Close the Black-White Achievement Gap?” from :Bridging the Achievement Gap, Brookings Institution Press 2002.
Cost-benefit analysis and devastating critique of Eric Hanushek, class size contrarian.
Debra Viadero, “Study Links Smaller Classes To Higher Earnings,” Education Week, October 25, 2000
Summary of Krueger's economic analysis
Gerald Bracey, "Distortion and Disinformation about Class Size Reduction."
Another good refutation of Hanushek.
California Educator, "Research supports class size reduction," May 2003.
What smaller classes have achieved in California.
California Educator, "Smaller classes work - don't turn back the clock," May 2003.
Michael Winerip, "Miracles of Small Class Size Unfold Each Day in California,"
The New York Times, October 29, 2003.
AEU Fact Sheet Number 1, "Class Sizes Do Matter."
Education World School Issues Center on Class Size:
NSW Public Education Inquiry 2002
Manageable Class Sizes
Australian summary of research.
Jeremy Finn, “Class Size Reduction, Grades K-3,”
School Reform Proposals: The Research Evidence, 2002
Ivor Pritchard, "Reducing Class Size: What Do We Know?"
US Department of Education, 1999 http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ReducingClass/
Charles M. Achilles, "Small Classes, Big Possibilities," The School Administrator, 1997.
Charles M. Achilles, "Exploring Class-Size Research Issues," The School Administrator, 1997.
Helen Pate-Bain
"Effects of Class-Size Reduction in the Early Grades (K-3) on High School Performance,”
David Grissmer, et.al.
Improving Student Achievement: What State NAEP Test Scores Tell Us. RAND, 2000. www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR924/
Leonie Haimson
Educational Priorities Panel, 2000.
People for the American Way
See section, "Smaller Classes Mean Better Schools, Smarter Students"
The Scottish Council of Research on Education
Does Small Really Make a Difference?
Good literature review on the effects of class size on teaching and student behavior.
The National Center on Education in the Inner Cities
"Parents Guide to Class Size Reduction," 2000.
Research on smaller classes in the upper elementary, middle and upper grades:
Numerous studies that show smaller classes in these grades are associated with improved student achievement and lower dropout rates. Some of the research is cited in the Class Size Matters fact sheet,
John M. Bridgeland, et.al., “The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts”,
A recent national survey finding that 75% of high school dropouts say that if they had had been provided with smaller classes they would likely have stayed in school.
C. H. Tienken and C. M. Achilles, “Making Class Size Work in the Middle Grades,” AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, Spring 2006/Vol. 3, No. 1, pp 26-36.
In a NJ middle school, reducing class size led to a reduction in the failure rate from 3-6% to only 1%, despite a concurrent increase in 40-60 students, and a 7% increase in poverty students,without any additional spending. Gains in test scores were statistically significant with .80 effect size.
Maisie McAdoo, "Is class size related to graduation rates?" The New York Teacher, June 8, 2006.
What smaller classes in grades 4-5 have achieved in Elk Grove CA:
Teachers of the Year talk about the need for smaller classes in the middle and upper grades:
Science Central, "Big Kids, Small Classes?"
D. McLaughlin and Gili Drori, School-Level Correlates of Academic Achievement, U.S. Dept. of Education, 2000.
The most authoritative study showing the importance of class size is in all grades, analyzing the achievement levels of students in 2,561 schools , as measured by performance on the NAEP (national) exams. After controlling for student background, the only objective factor found to be positively correlated with student performance was class size, not school size, not teacher qualifications, nor any other variable that the researchers could identify. Moreover, student achievement was even more strongly linked to smaller classes in the upper rather than the lower grades.
Harold Wenglinsky, When Money Matters, Educational Testing Service, 1997.
Shows how smaller classes in grades 4 and 8 are linked to higher test scores and improved student discipline.
National Council of Teachers of English, “More than a Number: Why Class Size Matters”
Kenneth J. Bernstein, "Class size does matter" , Prince George's and Montgomery Journal Newspapers, July 7, 2000.
Excellent essay by a high school teacher, explaining why both smaller classes and a smaller teaching load is essential to improve student achievement.
Eve Becker, “Size Does Matter: Why I Dream About Joel Klein”, West Side Spirit, May 13, 2004
Good article from the perspective of a NYC middle school teacher.
Christian Dustmann et. al., "Class Size, Education and Wages", Economic Journal, February 2003.
UK study showing high school students in small classes more likely to stay through graduation.
See also Guardian UK summary at: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,784159,00.html
Many of these are cited in the Class Size Matters fact sheet,
Smaller classes and teacher quality and effectiveness
Public Agenda, “A Sense of Calling: Who Teaches and Why,” 2000.
A national teacher survey showing that smaller classes are seen as the most effective way to increase the quality of instruction.
86% of teachers say that reducing class size would be a very effective way to improve the quality of instruction, far above any response, including requiring a major in the subject taught, increasing professional development or salaries, providing more mentoring, requiring graduate degrees or more testing of teachers, merit pay or any other strategy or reform.
Public Agenda, “Rolling Up Their Sleeves: Superintendents and Principals Talk About What’s Needed to Fix Public Schools,” 2003; http://www.publicagenda.org/research/pdfs/rolling_up_their_sleeves.pdf
Superintendants and Principals agree that reducing class size would significantly improve quality of teaching, with principals saying it would be the best way (at 36%), over higher salaries (35%) or merit pay (25%). (p. 66).
Public Agenda, "Sizing Things up", 2001
70% of teachers say that small classes are more important to student achievement than small school size. School size only 4%, both equally at 23%, 3% don’t know.
Parents: 47% say class size more important, only 8% school size, and 43% say both. (p.32)
New York City Council Investigation Division report on Teacher Attrition and Retention, 2004.
Nearly a third (30%) of new teachers (1-5 years of experience) in NYC said that it was unlikely that they would be teaching school in the next three years. For those teachers who were thinking of leaving NYC public schools, the top three changes in their work conditions most likely to entice them to stay include a new contract with higher pay; class size reduction; and better discipline and safety.
The three factors that caused the greatest dissatisfaction among new NYC teachers were: discipline and safety in the schools (51% unsatisfied); availability of supplies and instructional materials (44%); and class size (39% unsatisfied).
Thomas Dee, “Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment,”
Review of Economics and Statistics, February 2004. http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tdee1/Research/restat04.pdf
Study showing that student/teacher racial differences appear to negatively effect student achievement, in regular size classes.
Yet in small classes, students learn more no matter regardless of their teachers' race.
Michael Winerip, "Good Teachers + Small Classes = Quality Education,"
New York Times, May 26, 2004.
Excellent summary of above article.
Leonie Haimson, "The 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board and the need to reduce class size," May 17, 2004.
