This publication presents the proceedings of a seminar on class size research that was held in May 1975 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Most of the publication consists of papers presented at the seminar and reactions to those papers by other conference participants. Also included is a summary of remarks made during the panel…

In this study an attempt is made to go beyond traditional enrollment accounting. By use of a student questionnaire on the design of individual classes combined with course enrollment data, tentative individual class size standards have been established. The results of this survey are presented in appendix 1, which contains tables covering 1973-74…

Professional concern about the possible injurious effects of large classes and personal interest in various cognitive style variables led to this particular research at West Valley College (California). The belief persists among teachers, in spite of objective research, that small classes are better. Here, it was hypothesized that (1) class size…

Discussions and research of class size would be more useful if they dealt with some of the significant relationships that exist between a resource allocation plan (more teachers for smaller classes) and the social processes that constitute the environment of these smaller classes. (Author/MLF)

Explores the benefits of structuring a research class with weekly alternation between one whole-group meeting (20 students and three professors) and three part-group meetings (six or seven students and one professor). Students participated more actively in part-group sessions. (Author/AV)

Criticizes Robert Slavin for failing to recognize the author's proper role in evaluating numerous popular learning interventions, including mastery learning. Slavin's claim of "remarkable progress" with Success for All is unjustified, considering the unsubstantiated evidence given in his single unpublished study. Includes two references.…

Reviews strengths and weaknesses of teaching via satellite communications systems. Satellite technology will increase educational access if problems regarding funding and government/private industry roles are resolved. Other problems may arise concerning the one-way video/talking head format and class size, job security, curriculum control, and…

In 1984, the North Gibson School Corporation (Princeton, Indiana) began a reduced class size program as part of the PRIME TIME project investigating the effects of smaller classes on pupils' academic achievement, self-concepts, and attitudes toward school. Results showed significant gains for both first- and second-graders. Includes two tables and…

Describes an Illinois school district's successful effort to boost its early education program by reopening an older school and putting all three-to-six year olds into smaller classes under one roof. Success came from careful planning, a close working relationship with community members, smart public relations, and a good product showing strong…

This paper uses an earnings function to model how class size affects the grade students earn. It tests the model using an ordinal logit with and without fixed effects on 363,023 undergraduate observations. It finds that class size negatively affects grades. Average grade point average declines as class size increases, precipitously up to class…

Competing explanations of class size reduction effects on student academic achievement were tested using student, teacher, and school data collected from nearly 700 classrooms in over 70 schools during the first 3 years of implementation of California's (K-3) Class Size Reduction Program. Five major hypotheses were tested: (1) overall impact of…

To increase the understanding of help seeking by college students in large classes, this study examined the help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and goals, and the preferred helping resources of 883 college students. Factor analysis suggested that students could be parsimoniously described by two help-seeking orientations: (1) strategic/adaptive,…

Landmark studies in the late 1970s and 1980s, including Tennessee's Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio), raised the nation's awareness that reduced class size does have a positive impact on students' academic achievement. This report provides a sketch of class-size reduction's history in a prefatory overview. Chapter 1 describes…

This paper examines the social, political, and economic factors that influenced the adoption and diffusion of early-elementary school class-size-reduction policies at the state level. It applies a neo-institutional framework to explain the rapid spread of class-size reduction policies throughout many state legislatures and boards of education. It…

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…