Small Classes: Popular, But Still Unproven

By Debra Viadero

As President Clinton pushes his new national initiative to shrink the size of classes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders, he sounds very sure of the idea.

"We know that students learn more when they are in smaller, more orderly learning environments where teachers and students alike are not distracted from the job at hand," Mr. Clinton said in his recent State of the Union Address.

The president may be certain that reducing class sizes will enhance learning, but he doesn't have much company among education researchers. Despite decades of studies on the subject, scholars remain deeply divided over whether simply reducing class sizes can bring about...