While calls to reduce class size in school have considerable popular appeal, the related discussion of the scientific evidence has been limited and highly selective. The evidence about improvements in student achievement that can be attributed to smaller classes turns out to be meager and unconvincing. In the aggregate, pupil-teacher ratios have…

Many governments worldwide have dramatically increased resources devoted to improving educational quality. However, by concentrating on inputs and ignoring incentives within schools, resources have resulted in little overall improvement in student achievement. Reviews U.S. and international evidence on the effectiveness of such input policies,…

Suggests that RAND's claims to have overturned conventional research wisdom on connections between school expenditures, class size, teacher pay, and student achievement are highly problematic, explaining that its report drew sweeping conclusions from average statewide data from just 44 states, and the data analysis is subject to significant…

These papers examine research on the impact of class size on student achievement. After an "Introduction," (Richard Rothstein), Part 1, "Understanding the Magnitude and Effect of Class Size on Student Achievement" (Alan B. Krueger), presents a reanalysis of Hanushek's 1997 literature review, criticizing Hanushek's vote-counting…

Enormous funding increases for U.S. public schools have not yielded improvements in student performance. Econometric research shows that neither smaller classes nor graduate teacher training affects performance. Since schools use resources inefficiently, incentives should be linked to performance. Magnet and charter schools and private school…

Reviews Tennessee's Project Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) and puts the results in the context of other nonexperimental evidence about class size. Nonexperimental evidence does not support any achievement gains attributable to class-size reduction, and empirical evidence from STAR has design and implementation flaws that cast doubt on…