Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

No more vexing problem in education exists today than the achievement gap in this country.

The difference between the extremes has rightfully attracted national attention, and one of the most popular policy proposals is to reduce class size---not surprising, since benchmarks are easily measured.

In his provocative article for the March 2008 issue of Elementary School Journal, "Do Small Classes Reduce the Achievement Gap between Low and High Achievers" Evidence from Project STAR", Spyros Konstantopoulos (Northwestern University) explores the hard data and finds that some of our basic assumptions about class size may be incorrect.

Konstantopoulos worked with data on mathematics and reading achievement provided by Tennessee's Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio), an unprecedented four-year longitudinal class-size study encompassing over 11,000 K-3 students in 79 schools.

But when Konstantopoulos dug deeper, he found that the children who are already high achievers benefited the most from the extra attention afforded by smaller classes.

Low achievers also benefited from being in small classes (compared to low achievers in regular size classes), but they did not benefit not as much as high achievers.

Spyros Konstantopoulos is Assistant Professor of Education & Social Policy at Northwestern University.

The Elementary School Journal has served researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners in the elementary and middle school education for over one hundred years.

ESJ publishes peer-reviewed articles dealing with both education theory and research and their implications for teaching practice.

In addition, ESJ presents articles that relate the latest research in child development, cognitive psychology, and sociology to school learning and teaching.

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