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Free toddlers activity & kids learning guide parenting article about Public School Size Doesn’t Matter Very Much

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School authorities often complain that classes are too large. They claim that teachers can't be expected to give their students the individual attention they need if there are too many students in the class.

On the surface, this excuse seems to have some merit. Common sense tells us that in smaller classes, teachers can give more time and attention to each student.

However, many studies show that smaller class size does not guarantee that children get a better education.

The pupil-to-teacher ratio in public schools in the mid-1960s was about 24 to 1.

This ratio dropped to about 17 to 1 by the early 1990s, which means the average class size fell by 28 percent. Yet, during the same time period, SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) test scores fell from 954 to 896, a decline of 58 points or 6 percent. In other words, student academic achievement (as measured by SAT scores) dropped at the same time that class sizes got smaller.

Eric Hanushek, a University of Rochester economist, examined 277 published studies on the effects of teacher-pupil ratios and class-size averages on student achievement. He found that only 15 percent of these studies showed a positive improvement in achievement with smaller class size, 72 percent found no statistically significant effect, and 13 percent found a negative effect on achievement.

It seems to go against common sense that student academicachievement could drop with smaller class sizes. One reasonthis happens in public schools is that when class sizes drop,schools have to create more classes to cover all the studentsin the school.

Schools then have to hire more teachers for theincreased number of classes. However, public schools across thecountry are already having trouble finding qualified teachers tofill their classrooms. As a result, when reduced class sizesincrease the need for more teachers, schools then often have tohire less-qualified teachers.

As we might expect, teacher quality is far more important thanclass size in determining how children do in school. WilliamSanders at the University of Tennessee studied this issue.

Hefound that teacher quality is almost twenty times moreimportant than class size in determining students' academicachievement in class. As a result, reducing class sizes canlead to the contrary effect of hurting students' education,rather than helping.

Similarly, a study on class size by policy analyst JenniferBuckingham of the Sydney-based Center for Independent Studiesfound no reliable evidence that students in smaller classes dobetter academically or that teachers spend significantly moretime with them in these classes. Buckingham concluded that a 20percent class-size reduction cost the Australian government anextra $1,150 per student, yet added only an additional twominutes of instruction per day for each child.

Reducing class sizes can't solve the underlying problems withpublic schools. No matter how small classes become, nothingwill help if the teachers are ill-trained or their teachingmethods are useless or destructive.

For example, if teachersuse whole-language or "balanced" reading instruction, they cancripple students' ability to read no matter how small theclasses are. Even if classrooms had one teacher for everystudent, that child's ability to read could still be crippledif the teacher used these reading-instruction methods.

Here's an analogy on this issue of class size vs. teachingmethods: Suppose a horseback-riding instructor was teaching onelittle girl to ride.

This instructor's teaching method was totell the bewildered girl to sit backwards on the horse, facingthe horse's rump, and control the horse by holding its tail.Does it matter that the student-teacher ratio in thishorseback-riding class is one-to-one if the instructor is anidiot or uses bad teaching methods?

Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.

About The Author: Joel Turtel is the author of "Public Schools,Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray OurChildren." Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email: lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348.

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