This study aims to understand the role of private secondary schools in rural Kenya under the Free Secondary Education Policy. Data were collected from four private schools over two months in 2018 and 2019. All the schools had experienced instability due to low enrolment, particularly after the policy was implemented in 2018. The decline in the…

A substantial amount of controversy surrounds the issue of class size in public schools. Parents and teachers are on one side, touting the benefits of smaller class sizes (e.g., increased academic achievement, greater student-teacher interaction, utilization of more innovative teaching strategies, and a decrease in discipline problems). On the…

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…

Investigates teachers' beliefs and attitudes on infant school classes in northern England. Reports on class size preferences and preferential treatment for some groups of children and teachers. Indicates that class size cannot be treated as unidimensional in its impact on the quality of teaching and learning. (CMK)

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…

Across the country, states are developing more unified and comprehensive education systems for young children. The authors of this article outline seven features that help connect various early education programs across a state. First, supportive governance ensures that all parts of an early care and education system complement, rather than…