Benefits of Smaller Class Sizes

The class size factor served each group of searchers equally well. For those people seeking to improve educational performance, it appeared obvious that a lower student-teacher ratio would equate to higher performance. For people seeking a scapegoat, high student-teacher ratios were a godsend. The high ratios absolved both teachers and students from responsibility for poor performance.

Problems arose, however, in implementing policies mandating smaller student-teacher ratios. The first major problem was cost. Reducing student-teacher ratios required more classrooms and more teachers. To justify the expense of such a policy, it was necessary to have evidence of the validity of the concept in practice. The findings of research studies investigating the impact of class size on educational performance tended to be mixed. While most studies found s

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ifferent grade levels with respect to participation or non-participation in class-size reduction programs? Definition of Terms Class A individual classroom of students Class-size reduction program A funded program to reduce student-teacher ratios to 20:1 Educational performance Student academic performance Participation/non-participation Participation or non-participation in a class-size reduction program, Size The number of students in a class Student-teacher ratio The number of students per teacher in a class Theoretical Framework System theory states that the system must be viewed as a whole that intends to maintain its status, to understand that simply changing one of its parts may be ineffective (von Bertalanffy, 1956). Therefore, the effort to improve educational performance by students tends to be impeded by a system that has become entrenched. This existing system is an interlocking structure of players (educational, political, interest groups, and so forth) that has developed rules and processes with which they are comfortable and which they are reluctant to change. The existing system for educating students is not satisfactory for all students, although so
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Approximate Word count = 1753
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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