Human Services News

From Columbia University:

Reducing the number of students per classroom in U.S. primary schools may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical interventions, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Virginia Commonwealth University.

The researchers estimated the health and economic effects of reducing class sizes from 22--25 students to 13--17 students in kindergarten through grade 3 nationwide, based on an intervention tested in Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio), a large multi-school randomized trial that began in 1985.

The study shows that a student graduating from high school after attending smaller-sized classes gains an average of 1.7 quality-adjusted life-years and generates a net $168,431 in lifetime revenue.

"This is because low-income students seem to benefit more from the additional attention afforded by small classes," noted Dr. Muennig.

"Because we focused on a relatively expensive intervention and examined outcomes over a range of values, our results should provide a conservative framework for evaluating this and other interventions as long-term data on educational interventions become more plentiful," he commented.

The findings not only raise issues of whether investments in social determinants of health can be more cost-effective than investments in conventional medical care, "but more intriguing still, also bring up the idea that each dollar invested in education could also potentially produce other long-term returns," observes Dr. Muennig.

The only accredited school of public health in New York City, and among the first in the nation, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides instruction and research opportunities to more than 950 graduate students in pursuit of masters and doctoral degrees.

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