Early Years

Class Size: Reducing class sizes in the early grades has emerged as a popular policy initiative across the country as states look for ways to improve student performance.

Now, researchers from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., are trying to determine if that state's effort—called Prime Time—is making any difference.

Districts that participate in the program, which began during the early 1980s, receive state money to hire instructional assistants for the primary grades. The districts provide the additional classrooms and materials. With those assistants, instructor-to-student ratios are lowered to an average of 1-to-18 for kindergarten and 1st grade, and 1-to-20 for...