Education: The best evidence shows that class size matters The Stump - - OregonLive.com:
"The Oregonian reported last week that Oregon ranks almost at the bottom among states in terms of class size in public K-12 education. This raises the question, should Oregonians be concerned about large sized classes? The answer is yes.
The effect of class size on student achievement is the subject of intense debate among economists and education researchers. The reason has much to do with the difficulty of isolating the effect of class size when examining average achievement differences across classes, schools, districts and states.
The fact that the students and teachers do not end up in smaller classes by chance will render the findings of these studies unreliable. For example, if wealthier districts have both smaller classrooms and higher achievement scores we would not be able to reliably say that the achievement differential is due to class size, socioeconomic background of the students, teacher ability, etc. Fortunately there is one study that represents the gold standard in social science research, a randomized experiment. In 1985 the state of Tennessee undertook a study of class size effects that gave participating districts funds for the reduction of class sizes as long as they maintained both large and small classes and randomly assigned students and teachers to both types of classes."
"The Oregonian reported last week that Oregon ranks almost at the bottom among states in terms of class size in public K-12 education. This raises the question, should Oregonians be concerned about large sized classes? The answer is yes.
The effect of class size on student achievement is the subject of intense debate among economists and education researchers. The reason has much to do with the difficulty of isolating the effect of class size when examining average achievement differences across classes, schools, districts and states.
The fact that the students and teachers do not end up in smaller classes by chance will render the findings of these studies unreliable. For example, if wealthier districts have both smaller classrooms and higher achievement scores we would not be able to reliably say that the achievement differential is due to class size, socioeconomic background of the students, teacher ability, etc. Fortunately there is one study that represents the gold standard in social science research, a randomized experiment. In 1985 the state of Tennessee undertook a study of class size effects that gave participating districts funds for the reduction of class sizes as long as they maintained both large and small classes and randomly assigned students and teachers to both types of classes."