The 2016 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 52nd in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

This third edition, now published by Pine Forge Press, features original readings and article excerpts by leaders in the area of Sociology of Education. With a wide array of theoretical perspectives, a broad range of respected sources, and inclusion of both classic and contemporary studies, this comprehensive, integrated text addresses key issues…

Public opinion surveys conducted by Public Agenda confirm that parents, students, and educators from diverse ethnic groups share the same fundamental aspirations for education and agree on the basic reforms needed in schools. The author, a senior advisor for Public Agenda, describes survey findings that suggest that all groups see education as the…

Young children's learning--and how their learning is distributed by social background--may be influenced by the structural and organizational properties of their school. This study focuses on one important structural dimension of these educational contexts: "size." This study differs from extant studies linking size to student outcomes in four…

Social science research suggests that reducing class size has its largest effects on the achievement of minority and inner-city children during the first year of formal schooling. Despite scholarly disagreements about the implications of specific studies on class size, economists generally agree that targeted class-size policies rest on stronger…

This paper presents the findings from research conducted with two samples of teachers from Estonian Vocational Schools. The first sample comprised a group of teachers who had received professional development directly related to the management of students with special educational needs in vocational education settings. Their attitudes and…

The Tesseract Schools in Baltimore City are nine public schools operated by The Alliance for Schools That Work, an association of for-profit businesses. This document contains findings of a program evaluation of grades 1-5 conducted by the University of Maryland at Baltimore City. The study compared seven Tesseract elementary schools with a…

Assigning letter grades in a consistent manner to tests in large classes across semesters is problematic if absolute grading standards are used. It may be unreasonable to implement the usual standard-setting approaches recommended for large-scale criterion-referenced testing due to both time constraints and a desire to have criteria that appear…

This paper presents a resolution passed by the New York State United Teachers calling on New York State to adopt a "Reading for Life" plan. Also, included is a letter to Chancellor Carl T. Hayden discussing the resolution and recommendations on changes in high school graduation requirements. The paper first sets out the resolution on the…

Based on the comparison of a regular-sized (n=25) and an oversized (n=54) class of college students taught by the same instructor, significant superior performance was found in favor of the large class. This disparity persisted even when a switching regression model (with endogenous switching) was performed. Only 39% of the learning disparity can…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the relationship between the performance (as measured by test results) of pupils in classrooms with full-time teacher aides. The Student Teacher Achievement Ratio project (STAR) was implemented in Tennessee from 1985 through 1989 to study the effects of class size on student achievement and…

When California implemented its class-size reduction (CSR) program in 1996, a number of questions regarding financial burdens, teacher shortages, scarcity of facilities, and collective bargaining were raised. This first-year implementation study aims to provide some contextual information as background for answering questions, to clarify these…

This book deals with the challenges of teaching large classes at institutions of higher learning, and addresses such issues as how instruction can be personalized and made more interactive with large numbers of students. The material for the book arose out of a "large classes project" at the University of Maryland, where the subject was…

A survey of special education class size completed by 70% of the states resulted in tables depicting class size guidelines for a number of types of handicapping conditions: hearing impairments, multiple handicaps, mental retardation, orthopedic handicaps, profound handicaps, serious emotional disturbance, speech/language disability, and visual…

Teacher's perceptions of their experiences in teaching small classes or with a full-time teacher's aide are discussed in this report. The study reported was part of Tennessee's Project STAR: a 4-year, longitudinal demonstration policy study. Analyses were conducted on interviews with 86 teachers of small second grade classes, 54 teachers of second…