Class Size In Public Education

Words: 502
Pages: 3

Introduction Class size has been a popular debate on whether a student succeeds at the college level or not. Public education has undergone major reforms in the last 30 years with the rise in high-stakes testing, accountability, and charter schools, as well as the current shift toward Common Core Standards. The availability of new datasets that follow large numbers of students into the workforce has allowed researchers to estimate the lifetime impact of being taught by teachers who increase students’ standardized test scores. In the midst of these new reforms and policy concerns, some have argued that class size does not matter. This opinion is a very popular concern and belief in Canadian journalist and author, Malcolm Gladwell. He uses small class size as an example of a thing that is convinced to be such a big advantage to many, but may not be such a big advantage at all. …show more content…
Class size does matter. Class size is one of the most studied education policies, and an extremely rigorous body of research demonstrates the importance of class size in positively influencing student achievement. This policy first reviews the research on class size. Special attention is given to the literatures in economics and related fields. It then documents the recent rise in class size and considers how to compare the effects of class size reduction with other commonly discussed policy alternatives. In addition, research shows that students in early grades seem to excel and preform better in smaller class sizes. This is very important especially with students who come into a class with background disadvantages, such as lacking the language being taught. This allows teachers to be more affective with their students, and the research shows that students at an early grade level excel and continue that pattern throughout their educational career as they move up through school in smaller