Report Roundup

Smaller Classes Boost Test Scores, Study Says: Children who were assigned to classrooms with smaller numbers of students in kindergarten through 3rd grade outperformed their peers in mathematics well into early adolescence, a study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and Tennessee State University has found.

Tennessee students who had been enrolled in K-3 classrooms serving 13 to 17 pupils scored several points higher on standardized math tests for 9th graders than did those who had been in classes of 22 to 26 students during those grades, the report says. The study included about 11,000 students at 79 elementary schools in 42 school districts.

Smaller class sizes were especially helpful for minority...