Of Course Smaller Class Sizes Make a Difference

By Angelo Gavrielatos, AEU Federal President

 If you were looking for a headline putting out a report saying that reducing class sizes doesn’t lead to better student outcomes is a good way to get it. But that claim in the new report from a think tank called the Grattan Institute doesn’t stack up.

Anybody who has spent any time in schools knows how critically important class sizes are.

Just last month the AEU asked over 11,000 teachers to nominate the single most important change they believed would help them improve student outcomes. The overwhelmingly response was: reducing class sizes.

 As one teacher told us:

 “I believe I could significantly increase the literacy levels of students if I had smaller class sizes

and more time to focus on specific activities for specific students.”

While the Grattan Institute report focuses on a study in Florida to support its claims, the academic evidence in favour of smaller class sizes is overwhelming.

 One of the most comprehensive studies was Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) in the US in the late 1980s, which analysed student achievement and development for more than 7,000 students in small classes of 13 - 17, regular classes of 22 - 25 and regular classes with a teacher and full-time teacher aide.

 It found:

 * Small classes had statistically significant academic benefits in every grade, in all academic subjects.

* The magnitude of effects was greater for students who started early and spent more years in small classes.

* In every grade, the benefits of small classes were greater for minority students or students attending inner-city schools than for white students in nonurban schools. Statistically, the advantages were often as much as two to three times as great, thus reducing the white/minority achievement gap.

 Smaller class sizes are therefore an important tool in achieving educational equity as well as lifting achievement levels.

 Project STAR and other US studies have also found that with smaller class sizes:

 * Teacher morale is improved in small classes.

* Teachers spend more time on direct instruction and less on classroom management when classes are smaller.

* There are fewer disruptions in small classes and fewer discipline problems.

* Students' engagement in learning is increased.

* In-grade retentions are reduced.

* Dropout rates may be reduced.

* Greater numbers of students who attend small classes in the early grades elect to take SAT or ACT tests in high school -- that is, aspirations to attend college are increased, especially among African American students.

In other words, the academic evidence proves what parents and teachers already know: kids do better in smaller class sizes. They always have and they always will.