Which school do you want to support?
Class size is a time-related idea. It stands as a proxy for how much time and attention a teacher can give each student.
In a small class there is more teacher-time available because it's allocated among fewer students. One strategy for improving educational quality is to cut class size.
Let's start with the basics. Class sizes in California are abnormally big.
Large class sizes (measured by comparing the number of students to the number of teachers on staff) are nothing new for California. The graph below shows the average "student-teacher ratio" in each state since 1970. This statistic can be used as a proxy for "class size," but it isn't quite the same thing. Most actual class sizes are larger than this statewide benchmark because not all certified teachers working at a school are in classes all day. Still, it is safe to expect that the higher the number of students per teacher in a state in any given year, the larger class sizes must be, and vice versa.
Clearly, smaller classes cost more than big ones. Does it make a difference?
Like anything in social sciences, context matters. The Center for Public Education (CPE), an initiative of the National School Boards Association, analyzed 19 studies on the subject. They concluded "most of the research shows that when class size reduction programs are well-designed and implemented in the primary grades (K-3), student achievement rises as class size drops."
Importantly, the study concluded that smaller classes produce the greatest benefits for disadvantaged students in grades K-3, and when there are 18 or fewer students per teacher. A research review by the National Education Policy Center (2014) reaches the same conclusion, and analyzes the different research approaches that have been brought to the question.
...the greatest benefits accrue for disadvantaged students in grades K-3, and when there are 18 or fewer students per teacher.
Class Size Matters, an advocacy organization, provides additional information and research on class sizes, including cost-benefit analyses. International comparisons provide additional perspective.
In 1988, California voters passed Proposition 98, which required the California legislature to increase spending on public education. Then-governor George Deukmejian, who had opposed Prop 98, argued that a sudden influx of money would change nothing if it merely raised teacher salaries. As an alternative, he argued that the money should be invested in reducing class sizes for grades K-3, capping class size at twenty students.
This policy change had a strong basis in research, but it turned out badly. Implemented without a phase-in period, the class-size reduction mandate created a sudden boom in demand for K-3 teachers. As school districts rushed to fill the new teaching positions, experienced teachers had lots of schools to choose from. Unsurprisingly, they tended to choose positions in schools and districts that offered the best salaries and working conditions. Schools serving low-income communities, meanwhile, had a hard time attracting qualified candidates. This dislocation inflicted a lasting and unequal impact on California's schools. The policy serves as a cautionary tale for education reformers: beware unintended consequences.
The California Department of Finance estimates that the state spent over $22 billion on incentives for K-3 class size reduction from the program’s inception until it was changed in 2009-10. In the lean budget years leading to 2013, the incentives were reduced and the rules effectively eliminated. Elementary class sizes rose steadily as a result, keeping California in last position in the country as far as class sizes.
The Local Control Funding Formula, which defines how the state allocates funds to school districts, provides districts about 10% more per K-3 pupil if they either commit to reducing class sizes down to 24 or reach agreement with their teachers’ union for a larger class size. Keen-eyed readers will note that the research referenced above showed a benefit to much, much smaller classes of 18 students or less.
In virtually any school, the number of students in each class tends to be pretty uniform. Walk into two 4th grade classrooms in a school district at random, and the number of students will probably vary little. Is this uniformity a mistake? Should classes vary in size?
Under the Local Control Funding Formula, which provides extra money for high-need students, local school districts have the power to implement this approach if they want to, for example by reducing class sizes in schools that serve the highest proportions of low-income students or English learners. Research undertaken for the Getting Down to Facts II project identified this as a promising practice.
School time varies a great deal among the states and around the world. The next lesson takes up the question of how much time students spend learning.
Updated June 2018, October 2018, November 2018.
Image: Insect Convention CC WoodleyWonderworks
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Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh November 2, 2019 at 9:32 pm
That is not actually what it says above. It says 18 or fewer students per teacher. If a classroom has more than one teacher in it, does that not keep the ratio?
Carol Kocivar January 14, 2018 at 9:18 am
Its introduction enticed more families who would have sent their children to private school to enroll in public school. " Their presence resulted in higher average test scores, but also helped improve their classmates’ performance as well, the authors said."
Article in:
The 74
Irma Aldana May 31, 2017 at 7:14 pm
How does this make sense?
Carol Kocivar June 22, 2016 at 11:32 am
A June 2016 policy brief from the National Education Policy Center takes another look at the research and finds....
"Despite claims to the contrary by some policymakers, Mathis concludes that reduction in class sizes may prove the most cost-effective school improvement policy overall. In Mathis’ view, money saved today by increasing class sizes will likely result in additional substantial social and educational costs in the future."
Dr. Mathis is Managing Director of the National Education Policy Center.
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/research-based-options
francisco molina August 13, 2019 at 3:17 am
Albert Stroberg May 1, 2016 at 7:12 pm
asoltero March 2, 2016 at 2:13 pm
iemailjillian February 29, 2016 at 5:39 pm
Angelica Manriquez February 29, 2016 at 3:53 pm
Will Kimbley February 5, 2016 at 12:24 pm
The reason is the research shows that by and large teachers do not teach any differently with a smaller class size than with a larger class. If a teacher does not take advantage of the smaller class size to change the way they teach, it is not going to have much effect.
http://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/
KimS September 15, 2015 at 10:27 am
When a school designs this as an integral part of its pedagogy, that works. But when it is forced on schools for logistical reasons of budget, the kids and teachers suffer. My kids go to an IB school that's designed as an age-appropriate, sequentially-building program. Combo classes are causing parental worry and a lot of time and effort for the teachers in both classroom management and curriculum re-designs.
I don't think this is what the LCFF lower class size mandate intended to do, and nobody seems to be tracking whether the class sizes are combos or not. It's a huge loophole in the law.
Tara Massengill April 28, 2015 at 2:13 pm
aimeef23 April 27, 2015 at 4:08 pm
cnuptac March 22, 2015 at 2:55 pm
lb2vta March 19, 2015 at 11:37 pm
Brandi Galasso February 22, 2015 at 7:48 pm
David B. Cohen April 7, 2011 at 11:00 pm
I find it curious that you offer words of caution about unintended consequences for those who want to reduce class sizes, but express no caveats about the opposite argument. I find it troubling that you pass along Bill Gates opinions on education so uncritically despite his lack of credentials in the field and his increasingly obvious agenda in edreform, which many of us in the classroom find increasingly alienating and even hostile.
Steven N June 23, 2014 at 5:40 pm