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| CLASS DYNAMICS September 19, 1997 |
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Questions asked in this forum:
Are teachers being taught to present their lesson plans with ruthless efficiency? How might technology be used to help alleviate high student-teacher ratios? Where precisely does the size difference matter? Are there any good studies on small classes?
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August 21, 1997:
Paul Solman talks with Education Secretary Richard Riley and school officials from around the country.
August 12, 1997:
Chicago Public Schools are looking into mandatory summer school to increase test scores.
February 11, 1997:
President Clinton announces plans to create national standards to measure the country's educational system.
January 16, 1997:
A report shows that despite a 15-year effort to improve public schools, performance still lags.
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A question from Denise McArthur of Okinawa, Japan:
According to the recently released TIMMS results for population one, fourth graders, "69% of the students in Korea were in mathematics classes with more than 40 students and 93% were in classes with more than 30 students. Similarly, 98% of the students in Singapore, 87% in Hong Kong, and 68% in Japan were in classes with more than 30 students.
The report continues, " Dramatic reductions in class size can be related to gains in achievvement, but the chief effects of smaller classes often are in relation to teacher attitudes and instructional strategies. The TIMSS data support the complexity of this issue. Across countries, the four highest-performing countries at the fourth grade - Singapore, Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong - are among those with the largest math classes... the students with higher achievement appear to be in larger classes."
These teachers also relied more on whole-class instruction and independent work than the U.S., both practices currently argued against by reformers.
Also, in The Learning Gap, by Stevenson and Siegler, who ar frequently quoted by reformers, their recommendation is for larger class sizes in order to free up teachers to have more time to collaborate and prepare.
Doesn't it appear, after considering the data, that other influences have a much greater impact on learning than class size? Isn't it true that class size matters more when one is discouraged to utilize whole-class instruction; but it is not necessarily a cause for poor performance in itself?
Michael Kirst, Stanford University professor and director of Policy Analysis for California Education responds:
Your analysis of TIMSS data is on target, but there are big cultural differences that influence effects of class size. Part of TIMSS was a videotape study by Stigler. The tapes demonstrated how Japanese teachers conveyed math concepts to a whole group of 40 and they grasped it. Stigler contends that there is a distinctive cultural teaching style.
But the policy decision about class size must be made within the U.S. cultural contex. Our teachers believe class size is crucial. As important as teaching style are teacher qualifications. In California, 30% of new teachers for class size reduction are untrained. I agree that class size reduction is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to improve student learning.
Sonia Hernandez, Deputy Superintendent for the Curriculum and Instructional Leadership Branch of California State's Department of Education responds:
The answer to your questions involves the complexities of the student populations that we deal with. In countries that are among the highest achievers, there is not the diversity of student population that we have in California -- not just ethnic diversity, but cultural and linguistic as well. When 60 languages are represented in a single school, the instructional strategies have to be much different from what can be put in to place when one has a pretty uniform student population.
By and large, we do have whole-class instruction to the extent that it is reasonable, but it is very difficult to use only whole-class approaches when there are multiple languages in the classroom, or when students with no educational background whatsoever are coming into California. As for schools in high-achieving nations, we actually visited classrooms in Japan and Singapore. In the lower grades, their schools do have fairly small class sizes (e.g., 15 students), particularly in urban areas. This is so even though their average seems to indicate a class size much higher. We noted that in the lower grades, classes are small, as students move up to fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, the class sizes expand considerably.
One advantage that California has that Tennessee did not: a professional development component in its CSR legislation. The law states that training be given to participating teachers, centering on individualized instruction, effective teaching strategies for smaller classes, and ways to build on and respond to pupil needs.
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