Only very large reductions in class size—cuts on the order of seven to 10 students per class—are likely to lead to significant long-term effects on student achievement, a new research synthesis says.
The review by the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy notes that while 24 states, in recent decades, have either mandated class-size reductions or offered incentives for schools to shrink classes, many of those initiatives may not be worth the cost because the average class-size reductions aren’t large enough to make much difference in student achievement.
The analysis by the Washington-based think tank also points to research suggesting that other improvement efforts, such as cross-age tutoring or computer-aided instruction, may yield more bang for the buck.
