Recent studies have show that small classes at the early Elementary School levels have lasting effect on student performance, even in the High School.

Since 1984, large-scale research has been conducted in Tennessee. The research was sustained for considerable time, something unusual in education. Of even greater importance was the establishment of a large database. As Governors, legislators, State Board of Education representatives, education commissioners, principal investigators, superintendents, principals and teachers, researchers and staff changed, the research continued.

Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) began in Fall, 1985 with almost 7,000 pupils in K who were randomly assigned to the smaller classes in 79 schools. This involved 42 of Tennessee's 138 school districts. Teachers were assigned to classes at random. In Fall, 1986 pupils moved to grade 1 and remained in the same class size units. (They basically moved as cohorts each year).
New teachers and aides were randomly assigned. This process was repeated each year from grade K-3. After grade 3 the pupils returned to the regular class-size conditions of the district.

The results of STAR were that small classes outperformed regular classes in all locations, for all groups, each year, and cumulatively for all three years.

Further studies of students engaged in the STAR project show that in grade 8 pupils who had been in the small classes were still outperforming the regular students, but that differences among the groups were fading.

What has been learned? Something that many parents and teachers have long known. Small is better, especially in the early years of schooling, and that "better" seems to be much more than simply better test score results.

Other school boards in the United States are following Tennessee's example. In The Nether lands the Tennessee results have become a major point of debate.

Pupil achievement is a major issue in our schools. In this time of budget cuts, school leaders have to deploy available resources wisely. The STAR study shows that spending a bit more money at the early elementary grades guarantees better use of resources at a later time.

Reduction in class size demands a big investment in the structure of elementary education, but not as much when one takes into consideration later benefits, such as less unemployment insurance, fewer transfers to special education and fewer repeaters.

But is the Quebec government listening? No. Its short-sighted penny pinching attitude towards education only guarantees greater expenditures later. Penny wise, pound foolish.

Smug?

Canadian teachers are sometimes heard to sound rather smug about the quality of education our students receive when compared with that of American students, especially those who attend schools in states that have given education funding a low priority.

Perhaps it's good to be brought up short now and then. While class size continues to increase across Canada, teachers in California lead a campaign to draw attention to overcrowded classrooms. As a result, $771 million (U.S.) was appropriated to reduce the size of all K-3 classrooms to 20 or fewer students.

We should be so lucky - and so should our students.

(Source: "Size Matters", NEA Today, Vol. 15, No. 2, September 1996, p.11)

 

Originally published in the PAPT - Sentinel, Spring 1997, vol.13, nr.1