Yes, class sizes mean something

The Globe and Mail

Thursday, August 25, 2005 Page A14 (Editorial)

Does class size in the country's public schools matter? The C.D. Howe Institute argues in a published commentary that it does not. The C.D. Howe is wrong.

The institute says with some justification that there is little scientific evidence linking small classes to high achievement levels. This space has looked skeptically on Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's plan to spend nearly $500-million a year by 2007-08 to cap class sizes from kindergarten to Grade 3 at 20 students, as a means of reaching his impossibly high goals for improved results on standardized tests.

But the institute has a giant blind spot. It is totally unaware of another dimension to the issue -- the quality of children's experience in the classroom.

Children want and need to be known for who they are when they go to school. This is especially true in the primary years, and continues to hold true for many students throughout their kindergarten to Grade 12 years. (Perhaps in university, too. Frank Iacobucci, the former acting president of the University of Toronto, singled out the shrinking of bloated class sizes as a key goal.)

Do they look forward to being in school? Are they encouraged to participate, to find what they love to do, to develop their strengths, to work on their weaknesses? Does someone take an active interest in them, or are they left to drift? Many parents who find that the answers are primarily negative ones will pull their children out and place them in private school. The public schools need to be able to compete.

Few studies have been done on the effects of class size in Canada, but international studies tend to show scant academic gains in smaller classes -- on average. Still, even if overall averages may change little, studies have noted important gains among disadvantaged children and those with special learning needs. Canadian public schools have poor records in dealing with both groups.

When Manitoba set up a commission on class sizes in 2002, senior high-school students told it why they favoured smaller classes: more individual attention, less noise and distraction, and occasional opportunities to go off topic. Teachers also favoured smaller classes -- a position that C.D. Howe sniffs at as a mere convenience, a workload issue.

It is a workload issue, but a legitimate one. A teacher who is always fighting fires is not teaching. Some classes may have large numbers of challenging pupils -- those with behavioural problems, or new immigrants with a weak grasp of English or French. In a typical Grade 4 class, students may perform at levels from Grade 1 to Grade 6. Some pupils may have little help at home.

Canadians want better public schools, but aren't sure how to make them better. Reducing class sizes is not a magic bullet. The C.D. Howe Institute is right that more attention to teachers' professional development (and to the development of principals with real leadership ability) is crucial. But there is good reason to keep some class sizes under control.