Given that previous findings on the social distribution of the effects of small classes have been mixed and inconclusive, in the present study I attempted to shed light on the mechanism through which small classes affect the achievement of low- and high-achieving students. I used data from a 4-year, large-scale, randomized experiment (project…

Recent research from randomized experiments on class size points to positive effects of small classes that persist for several years, but the evidence about the social distribution of effects is less clear. Some scholars have contended that the immediate effects of small classes are larger for minorities and for disadvantaged persons (e.g., J. D.…

Intuitively, class size reduction is a good idea. Parents support it because it means that their children will receive more individual attention from teachers. Teachers like it for the same reason and also because it creates a more manageable workload. It is generally assumed that the fewer students in a class, the better they will learn and the…