The only English teacher at the School of Medicine in Belgrade discusses the use of student assistants to help solve the problem of teaching very large classes of students. Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using student assistants. (Author/VWL)

Using data from Illinois, I examine relationships between the number of private schools and characteristics of the public schools and surrounding population. I find positive, statistically significant relationships between number of private schools in 1998 and public school 3rd grade class size, the percent college educated, and the percent over…

Majority-race (black or white) elementary school children with and without a minority friend (black or white) in their classroom were compared on measures of social, behavioral, and affective characteristics. Analyses focused on 260 4th through 6th grade students who were racial majorities in their classrooms and had at least one reciprocated…

This study demonstrates a method for extending debates on the effectiveness of school inputs into the cost-effectiveness realm. This study uses the example of Florida's statewide initiative to reduce class sizes to determine which of many state inputs buys the most effect for the same expenditure. The method includes a three-stage process:…

The authors examined class size effects on teacher-pupil interactions, pupil engagement, and pupil-pupil interaction. They extended previous research by recognizing the hierarchical nature of observation data and the possible influence of other variables. The study used a time sampling method involving 257 children (aged 10-11 years) in 16 small…

Most research on the positive effects of class-size reduction (CSR) has occurred in the elementary level (Word, Johnston, Bain, Fulton, Zaharias, Lintz, Achilles, Folger, & Breda, 1990; Molnar, Smith, Zahorik, Palmer, Halbach, & Ehrle, 1999). Is CSR an important variable in improving education in the middle grades? Can small classes be…

There is mounting pressure on business education to increase experiential learning at the same time that budget constraints are forcing universities to increase class size. This article explains the design and implementation of the "Marketing You" project in two large sections of Principles of Marketing to bring experiential learning into the…

Despite evidence from the USA that children in small classes of less than 20 do better academically there is still a vociferous debate about the effects of class size differences in schools, and considerable gaps in our understanding of the effects of class size differences. This article summarises results from the most complete UK analysis to…

This research investigated the extent to which science laboratory experiences encountered by Utah high school students aligned with reform efforts outlined in national standards documents. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods the findings revealed that while there were instances of alignment found between science laboratory…

A single subject alternating treatment design was used to compare the relative effectiveness of one-to-one embedded instruction in the general education classroom and one-to-one massed practice instruction in a special education class. Four middle school students with developmental disabilities, their special education teacher, and…

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

Although the number of urban Catholic schools has declined in recent years, Nativity model middle schools, first developed by the Jesuits over 35 years ago, have appeared throughout the nation to address the need for effective alternative education for urban children placed at risk. The present study compares the effectiveness of two types of…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

This report describes a program designed to decrease students' undesired behaviors. Undesired behaviors addressed include tattling, hitting, kicking, biting and pinching. A review of existing literature revealed these behaviors affected all aspects of the classroom. The sample population consisted of two sessions of at-risk pre-kindergarten and…

Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) was a large-scale randomized trial of reduced class sizes in kindergarten through the third grade. Because of the scope of the experiment, it has been used in many policy discussions. For example, the California statewide class-size-reduction policy was justified, in part, by the successes of…