----- Original Message -----
From: Toba Frankel - tobaf@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Interesting research on classroom size
If you are teaching, working or involved with high
school populations, particularly at-risk and high
free-lunch populations, it's time to look at the new
wave of research coming out on the STAR project.
If you are not familiar with the name, the STAR project
was started by the state of Tennessee in 1985 and
involved their entire state school population.
They randomly divided all incoming kindergarten students
into 3 groups: Group A would belong to small class
groupings (13 - 17 students), Group B would belong to
regular full size classes (22-26 students), Group C would
belong to regular full size classes which included a second
adult (teacher aide). The program ran through 3rd grade.
All students went to regular full sized classes in the 4th grade.
The study involved nearly 12, 000 children and the study
continues to track the students who were involved.
The results have been published and analyzed periodically
since the preliminary data was collected in the early 1990's.
Early results of course showed us that children attending
small classes had a significant advantage in state assessment
scores. The advantage was particularly impressive with
free-lunch and minority populations.
Another wave of results came out in the late 1990's showing
us that small class size in the early years had enduring effects
as the children who came from Group A (small K-3 classes)
continued to have higher achievement scores in middle school
and high school and were much more likely to take college
admissions tests.
The latest research, out this year, now also shows us that
apparently those children who came from the small K-3
classes also were the ones most likely to graduate high school
and aspire to attend some type of post-secondary school.
The effects though were only seen for those students who
attended AT LEAST 3 years of elementary school in small classes.
(This means that having only small kindergarten and first grade
classrooms has no enduring effects on increasing achievement,
graduation rates or postsecondary attempts.) Those who attended
all 4 of their first 4 years had a huge advantage. In fact, having
had this experience ended up being an even greater factor in
high school graduation than the child's academic achievement.
To summarize the research, "Attending small classes for 3 or
4 years in the early grades had a positive effect on high school
graduation above and beyond the effect on early academic
performance." (pg. 219)
This is very significant research for those of us in secondary
education.
The effect of small (less than 17 students) classes in
elementary school is a major factor in how our students
do in high school. Apparently it is one of the biggest factors.
Significant enough that perhaps we need to be
going to our school boards and community with this data.
Finn, J., Gerber, S., & Boyd-Zaharias, J. (2005). Journal of Educational
Psychology, Vol 97(2), 214-223
Toba Frankel
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