February 2002 | Volume 59 | Number 5
Class Size, School Size
Pages 12-23
Small Class Size and Its Effects
Bruce J. Biddle and David C. Berliner
What does the evidence say about the effects of reducing class size?
Studies of the impact of class size on student achievement may be more plentiful than for any other issue in education. Although one might expect this huge research effort to yield clear answers about the effects of class size, sharp disagreements about these studies' findings have persisted.
Advocacy groups take opposite stances. The American Federation of Teachers, for example, asserts that
taken together, these studies . . . provide compelling evidence that reducing class size, particularly for younger children, will have a positive effect on student achievement. (Murphy & Rosenberg, 1998, p. 3)
The Heritage Foundation, by contrast, claims that “there's no evidence that smaller class sizes alone lead to higher student achievement” (Rees & Johnson, 2000).
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Copyright © 2002 by Bruce J. Biddle,David C. Berliner