Class size myth a costly lesson: Spending millions
to add teachers could be a waste of money
The
Calgary Herald
Thu 25 Aug 2005
Page: A18
Section: The Editorial Page

Byline:
Source: Calgary Herald

It's too bad a study which argues that class size has
virtually no impact on student achievement didn't come out before Alberta made a
decision to dump a huge pile of money into reducing class sizes.

Alberta is one year into a three-year plan to get average class size in line
with recommendations from the Alberta Learning Commission. The goal is to have
class sizes of 17 students in kindergarten to Grade 3, 23 in grades 4-6, 25 in
junior high, and 27 in high school. The project will require the hiring of 2,265
new teachers and $149 million of extra public spending each year.

And what can Calgary taxpayers and parents expect to see as a result of this
massive reinvestment, in terms of student performance? Next to nothing.

A C.D. Howe commentary by Yvan Guillemette,
titled School Class Size: Smaller Isn't Better, analysed several studies
researching the impact of smaller class sizes.

The evidence suggests small class sizes only have a measurable impact on
student performance in the earliest grades, kindergarten and Grade 1, as
children are getting adapted to the classroom environment. Once they've
adjusted, by grades 2 and 3, any advantage smaller classes offer all but
disappear.

In fact, the author found that larger class sizes can result in better test
scores than smaller classes. South Korea, for example, routinely outperforms the
U.S. and Canada on international tests, despite having much larger average class
sizes. The author suggests this may be because a school with a larger number of
students can hire better quality teachers, and thus expose more students to a
better learning experience.

Even in the early grades where improvement from small classes is measurable,
it is marginal at best and unnecessarily costly. The author estimates that the
cost of improving test scores (on standardized tests where the average test
score is 500) would be about $5,000 for every one point gain. Reducing class
sizes is not a cost-effective way to improve schools.

Nor does class size have much impact on the quality of the classroom
experience: 37 per cent of surveyed students report a high frequency of
disruptions from noise and disorder, regardless of the size of their class.

A Manitoba government task force concluded class composition is more
important than class size. If classes are in chaos and teachers are offering
uninspired lessons, it doesn't matter whether there are 35 kids in a class or 20
-- the outcome is going to be the same.

Reducing the number of students and the volume of tests and essays to mark
may make a teacher's job easier, but it won't make student performance any
better.

To improve outcomes, policy makers must rethink their approach. The
initiatives which have been shown to have a marked improvement in student
achievement are improving the quality of teachers through continuous
professional development, increasing accountability and embracing competition.

With the Alberta class size experiment already underway, it will become
evident very shortly whether the C.D. Howe study is on
the right track. If teachers expect continued support from taxpayers, they'll
have to prove the C.D. Howe study wrong.

Edition: Final
Story Type: Business; Editorial

Length: 519 words