Career academies -- small learning communities within high schools that introduce students to specific industry sectors -- have become a popular way to expand career education. Yet certain institutional, economic, and social factors can inhibit their viability and scalability. Michael Lanford and Tattiya Maruco conducted a yearlong qualitative…

When the pandemic forced schools across the country to close their doors in March 2020, many district and school leaders worked quickly to plan for and address students' "unfinished learning." How would they support students who had been exposed to content, but had not yet had a chance to master it? Research supports two ways schools can…

Schools across the United States are facing budgetary pressures on a scale not seen in generations. Times of fiscal exigency force policymakers and education practitioners to pay more attention to the return on various categories of public investment in education. The sizes of the classes in which students are educated are often a focus of these…

Larger classes are often associated with lower student achievement. The author tested the hypothesis that the introduction of personal response systems significantly improves scores in a 250-seat classroom, through the channels of improved attendance and engagement. She focused on how continuous participation with the technology could change…

Few questions in public education discourse benefit as much from research-based evidence as the question of class size--the pursuit of the ideal number of students that should be co-located for any particular period of instruction. But for policymakers, research on class size can be an embarrassment of riches, and much of the research appears to…

This Information Capsule examines the background and history in addition to research findings pertaining to class size reduction (CSR). This Capsule concludes that although educational researchers have not definitively agreed upon the effectiveness of CSR, given its almost universal public appeal, there is little doubt it is here to stay in some…

Because classroom size reduction (CSR) and standards based testing were implemented at the same time in California during the mid-1990s, it is difficult to isolate the effects of classroom size on outcomes from the effects of curriculum changes. As a result, the main comparison in this paper is very specific--the effect of reduced sized…

When California set out nearly 10 years ago to reduce class sizes in the early grades, educators nationwide looked West with awe and envy at the ambitious move to ease the task of teaching millions of the state's youngest students. In this article, the author examines the effects of California's class-size reduction program. State Superintendent…

California was, and remains, the largest "experiment" in class-size reduction (CSR) in the country's history. Its sweeping program to reduce the state's classes in kindergarten through the third grade covered nearly 2 million students and dropped the average class size from almost twenty-nine students per class, and often a great many…

This report reviews data generated during the first 3 years of California's Class Size Reduction (CSR) implementation. It focuses on a subpopulation of students who have had anywhere from zero to 3 years of reduced class-size experience, beginning in the first, second, or third grades, with some having returned to large classes in the fourth…

This report, intended for local and state policy makers and practitioners, summarizes the findings and implications of class-size reduction (CSR) in California. The report's findings provide a comprehensive picture of California's CSR initiative during its first 2 years, covering such topics as implementation, resources, teacher qualifications,…

This report discusses the results of the third year--1998-99--of California's Class Size Reduction (CSR) program. Assessments of the program show that CSR was almost fully implemented by 1998-99, with over 92 percent of students in K-3 in classes of 20 or fewer students. Those K-3 classes that had not been reduced in size were concentrated in…

This final report on the California Class Size Reduction (CSR) initiative summarizes findings from three earlier reports dating back to 1997. Chapter 1 recaps the history of California's CSR initiative and includes a discussion of what state leaders' expectations were when CSR was passed. The chapter also describes research on class-size reduction…

Smaller class sizes in California were viewed as a way to improve K-3 education, especially in the area of literacy. The urgency to act prompted state leaders to adopt class-size reduction (CSR) without knowing for sure that it would work and without establishing a formal procedure for evaluating the program. This report looks at past research on…

When California implemented its class-size reduction (CSR) program in 1996, a number of questions regarding financial burdens, teacher shortages, scarcity of facilities, and collective bargaining were raised. This first-year implementation study aims to provide some contextual information as background for answering questions, to clarify these…