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Ciaran Conneely
Mrs. Cramer
English Comp I Pd. 6b
13 Dec. 2019
Class Size: The Elephant in the Room of Education
In today’s society, education is perhaps the most important part to people, with it being

the backbone of almost anything people do. Parents want their children to have the best

education, as well as their educational conditions/surroundings possible. They are starting to

wonder if class size is a big factor in academic performances for students. There are different

studies being conducted on different class sizes to see the students’ academic performances.

Class size is starting to become a big name in the educational world. The following pieces of

literature were analyzed based on themes in each of them, including the minimal academic

differences between class sizes, the quality of teaching being the main factor, and the larger costs

from more smaller class sizes.

To begin with, the academic performances of students in different class sizes is the main

result people look at. It's common to believe that smaller class sizes lead to students performing

better. In Cynthia Januszka’s and Lisbeth Dixon-Krauss's article, there were studies that were

performed on elementary students with different class sizes, to see their academic performances.

A decent amount of those studies shows that students in smaller classes did perform better than

in larger-sized classes, especially in subjects like reading math, science, etc. On the contrary

though, studies in California showed that the smaller-sized classes showed little academic

improvement, compared to larger classes (Januszka & Krauss, par. 3-7). While there were

academic improvements in some studies, the article shows that its’s not always the case.

According to a scholarly article by Linda S. Toth and Linda G. Montagna, it said that grading
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systems in education do have inflation, which puts more grades in the “A-B” range. That could

throw off studies on class size that only look at class grades (Toth & Montagna, par. 4). Studies

could be at risk, when it comes to looking at class grades, as grade inflation could influence the

grades.

Even further, some of these studies conducted on class size aren’t entirely reliable.

According to Martin R. West and Ludger Woessmann, project STAR, in Tennesse, wasn’t the

best study. They point out that for one, they only looked at the students’ grades from the reduced

class, not before the class size was fixed. Also, they talk about how that the study was just in one

school in the country, even the world, meaning assumptions can’t be made (West & Woessmann,

par. 7). Like the point just made, in an article by Vanessa L. Wyss, Robert H. Tai, and Philip M.

Sadler, they pointed out how that projects like STAR are conducted on mostly elementary

students, not high school or college. That means that there isn’t much data on older students,

which can’t show the best results to conclude benefits of a smaller class. (Wyss, Tai, and Sadler,

par. 7).

To the next point, people are saying that class size isn’t the factor for academic

performances, but the quality of the teaching. Januszka and Krauss wrote that when a two-year

study was conducted, observing what the teachers do, they found that the teachers’ teaching

methods stayed the same, despite class sizes. This means that despite the smaller, or larger the

class, the teaching method is the same. The most important factor is that more teacher training

would be needed to put teachers in more smaller classes (Januszka & Krauss, par.8). Juan

Fernandez and Miguel A. Mateo wrote, “In the light of these data, it seems reasonable to infer

that the linear relationship between class size and teaching quality, in spite of statistically

significant effects revealed, is extremely weak,”(Fernandez &Mateo, par. 16). Even further,
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West and Woessman did a test on twelve different countries around the world, varying in class

size. They saw that Eastern Asian countries had close to thirty students in a class, the largest

class size in the test, but had the best academic performances. Meanwhile, countries in the test

like Iceland, Greece, Portugal, etc. had some of the lowest test scores, despite having the smallest

class sizes. That’s not even the main point of this subtopic, which is teaching quality. Greece and

Iceland, two of the lowest scorers, had the least amount spent on teachers out of the twelve

countries. The went for quantity, more smaller classes, means more low-quality teachers. If a

school or school district has more small classes, that means they need more teachers. The

problem is that they can’t afford to pay for high-quality teachers for the high number of small

classes, as shown by countries like Greece and Iceland (West & Woessmann, par. 24-25).

Teachers are the main factor that affects students’ academic performances, not class size.

Finally, reducing class size usually results to larger costs. Januszka and Krauss write that

in California, they spent $1 billion a year to reduce class sizes. The amount spent a year is eye-

raising. Not to mention, they wrote that due to California schools going towards more small-

sized classes, they ended up not having enough qualified teachers (Januszka & Krauss, par. 7).

Smaller classes means that there’s a higher number of them, which means schools need to hire

more qualified, good teachers. Paying for a high amount of qualified teachers can be an issue in

terms of costs/budgets for schools. West and Woessmann talk about how that between 1999-

2001, almost $4 billion was spent to reduce class sizes, an astonishing number. They also

mention that recently, state budgets for education have gotten smaller. By reducing class size, it

requires more teachers to be hired, which is costly. If budgets are getting cut, then it’s hard to

hire more teachers for smaller classes. Plus, the article says that it’s just expensive to go the route

of reducing class size and getting more teachers (West &Woessmann, par. 1-2). Antoinette
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Martin mentions that When Bill Clinton was in office, he wanted to spend about $20.8 billion for

at least 100,000 new teachers in the next ten years as a result of reducing class size. It’s

becoming a common trend that in order to reduce class size, the cost is in the billions. Plus, in the

article, he talks about how states like California and New York are spending billions of dollars to

reduce class size (Martin, par. 9-11). It would be difficult for schools to spend billions of dollars

to reduce class sizes. Not every school has billions of dollars or can even receive the funds to do

something like that. Small class size would result in a large cost.

Class size is becoming a big debate in today’s society, regarding education. People think

that it’s clear and obvious that reducing class sizes enhance students’ performances. Some tests

have proven that true, but that aren’t entirely reliable. Not to mention, other tests have shown a

minimal academic difference between class size. The quality of teachers in a class could be the

main factor, as studies have shown that teachers have the biggest effect on students. Finally,

reducing class sizes is expensive, as schools must spend lots of money on more quality teachers.

It’s clear that there’s no answer to the class size debate just yet, and more studies need to be

conducted to reach a reasonable conclusion.

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Ciaran Conneely
Mrs. Cramer
English Comp I Pd. 6b
13 Dec. 2019
Works Cited
Class size: a battle between accountability and quality instruction. Gale OneFile:

Educator's Reference Complete. Januszka, Cynthia, and Lisbeth Dixon-Krauss.

"Class size: a battle between accountability and quality instruction." Childhood

Education, vol. 84, no. 3, 2008, p. 167+. Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference

Complete,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A176049285/PROF?u=pl1949&sid=PROF&xid=6

d0b184d. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

Class size and achievement in higher education: a summary of current research. Gale

OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete. Toth, Linda S., and Linda G.

Montagna. "Class size and achievement in higher education: a summary of current

research." College Student Journal, vol. 36, no. 2, 2002, p. 253+. Gale OneFile:

Educator's Reference Complete,

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0be288. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

Crowd control: an international look at the relationship between class size and student

achievement (Research). Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete. West,

Martin R., and Ludger Woessmann. "Crowd control: an international look at the

relationship between class size and student achievement. (Research)." Education

Next, vol. 3, no. 3, 2003, p. 56+. Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete,
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https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A104835536/PROF?u=pl1949&sid=PROF&xid=5

4aac74a. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

High school class-size and college performance in science. Gale OneFile: Educator's

Reference Complete. Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)

Wyss, Vanessa L., et al. "High school class-size and college performance in

science." High School Journal, vol. 90, no. 3, 2007, p. 45+. Gale OneFile:

Educator's Reference Complete,

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bfcae07. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

Is there a relationship between class size and student ratings of teaching quality? Gale

OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete. Fernandez, Juan, and Miguel A. Mateo.

"Is there a relationship between class size and student ratings of teaching quality?"

Educational and Psychological Measurement, Aug. 1998, p. 596+. Gale OneFile:

Educator's Reference Complete,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A20979030/PROF?u=pl1949&sid=PROF&xid=e0

75f4b6. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.

Who says class size doesn't matter?! Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete.

Martin, Antoinette. "Who says class size doesn't matter?!" Instructor [1990], Sept.

1998, p. 92+. Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete,

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