A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Class Size and Students At Risk: What is Known?...What is Next? - April 1998

Introduction

It is a propitious time with regard to questions about class size. After years of debate, speculation, and research that yielded only partial and less-than-definitive answers, a major longitudinal study provides answers to the question "Do small classes result in greater academic achievement in the elementary grades?" Begun in 1985, Tennessee's Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio) set the stage for asking and answering a number of policy questions that could not be addressed before.

The first chapter of this paper reviews the status of research on class size with particular attention to the STAR investigation and to the research spawned by STAR. The conclusiveness of the findings are discussed as well as implications for students at risk and for education policy in general. The second chapter discusses approaches that have been taken to assess the costs and benefits of reducing class size and proposes additional dimensions that need to be considered; and the third explores the implications of small class size for classroom management and instructional strategies, with particular attention to the need to increase the academic engagement of students at risk. Issues requiring further research are identified throughout the paper. In the last chapter, however, these are summarized as a "research agenda" with priorities for further work.

This review and research agenda focus largely on the effects of small classes in the early grades. There are two reasons for this. First, the most current (and best) research to date has been conducted in kindergarten through grade 3. The state of research with respect to small classes in the upper grades is fragmented and even contradictory, leaving little to say that is based on substantive research results. Second, there are good reasons for starting research and intervention projects in the early grades. The assumption that the early years lay the foundation for much that follows is explicit throughout this review and has been substantiated repeatedly by research in the social sciences.

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[Acknowledgements] [Table of Contents] [Research on the Academic Effects of Small Class Size]