Sorry, size does matter
The Calgary Herald
Wed 31 Aug 2005
Page: A21

Section: Q: Queries - Quibbles - Quirks
Byline: Frank Bruseker

Source: For The Calgary Herald

Re: Smaller class sizes of little help: report, Aug. 24,
2005

Sometimes, academics say the strangest things: Elephants and lions should be
set loose on the prairies; Alberta enjoys the best weather in Canada; and, most
recently, class size reduction has no appreciable impact on student achievement.

Yvan Guillemette of the C.
D. Howe Institute claims that when it comes to class size
"smaller isn't better." However, the analysis underlying this conclusion is
highly selective, superficial and misleading.

To begin with, Guillemette chooses to define student achievement as referring
only to "student performance on standardized tests of reading, writing,
mathematics and science." The analysis that follows relies, then, on comparing
standardized test results among different provinces, looking to see if
differences are correlated to differences in average class sizes.

The problem with this approach is that there are many factors that contribute
to differences in test results among the provinces, including classroom
composition, the alignment of the provincial curriculums with the tests,
students' experience with standardized testing, and underlying socio-economic
conditions.

The standardized tests cited in the analysis were never intended to measure
the effect of class size, and to use them for this purpose is inappropriate at
best.

More fundamentally, there is more to student learning than students'
collective performance on a three-hour, once-a-year, fill-in-the-bubble test.
This type of test assesses only a small portion of the learning outcomes that
students are expected to achieve.

Studies, such as Edmonton Public Schools' Small Class Size Study, which have
taken a broader view of education, have documented the positive impact of
reducing class sizes on student learning. In fact, there is a wealth of sound
research literature supporting class size reduction, literature that Guillemette
has chosen to ignore.

Of course, reducing average class sizes is not a magic bullet solution.
However, reducing class sizes generally, and eliminating overly large class
sizes in particular, enhances student learning and teacher effectiveness. The
benefits of ongoing professional development and continuing improvement of
curriculum and learning resources are best realized when teachers have the time
and ability to pay attention to the needs of individual students. Small classes
help teachers do their best work.

None of this is news to anyone who has ever spent time in a school, and it is
unfortunate the C.D. Howe Institute is so contemptuous of the wisdom of
students, parents and teachers who know that class size makes a real difference.

Even private schools so often lauded as the preferred model for education by
right-wing think-tanks like the C. D. Howe Institute, typically emphasize their ability to offer
small class sizes and individualized attention.

As a teacher with years of experience teaching science in junior high
classrooms, I support Alberta's investment in reducing class sizes. If the
Alberta government's policy on class size is to be criticized at all, it should
be because it has not ensured the elimination of large classes, particularly in
urban junior and senior high schools.

And I'll believe the C.D. Howe Institute's take on class size that balmy day in March
when I am watering the flowers and watching the elephants pass by.

Frank Bruseker is president of the Alberta Teachers' Association.

Edition: Final
Story Type: Opinion
Length: 528
words