January 30, 1998
Contact: Jean Moore
Phone: 615-322-2706
Email: [email protected]
Vanderbilt educator says smaller classes bring major expense, modest gains
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Vanderbilt University education professor who has studied the impact of class size on students' learning says a comprehensive plan to improve skills would be a better investment of the nation's resources. In his State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed reducing the average number of students in first-, second- and third-grade classes to an average of 18 students. He also called for a school construction tax cut to build facilities for the new classes created by the initiative. But John Folger, an emeritus professor at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of education and human development, says reducing class size is not the most cost-effective way to enhance student learning. Although small classes allow teachers to use different teaching methods, the cost is very high. Folger believes that money would be better spent on schools that adopt a comprehensive plan to improve language arts and math skills in the early elementary grades. Folger was one of the principal researchers of Project STAR, a four-year study involving more than 7,000 students in Tennessee public schools in the 1980s. The project was commissioned by the state legislature in an effort to resolve conflicting studies about the impact of class size on student performance. Beginning in the fall of 1985, randomly selected kindergarten students in more than 70 public schools across the state were assigned to small classes (averaging 15 students per class), to regular classes (averaging 22 or 23 students) taught by a single teacher or to regular classes with a teacher and a teacher's aide. The students remained in the same classroom situation for four years, and their progress on annual standardized tests was carefully monitored. At the end of the kindergarten year, students in the small classes tested about 10 percent, or one month, ahead of their peers in the regular classes. (The presence of an aide to help the teacher had no measurable impact.) At the end of first grade, the students in smaller classes were 15 to 18 percent, or about two months, ahead of their peers. The difference was maintained through second grade and began to dissipate after third grade. The effect was significant but expensive, Folger says. Project STAR cut class size by about a third, but the education cost per student - the cost of buildings, classrooms, teachers -- increased by about 25 percent. Instead of focusing exclusively on smaller classes, Folger says he would advise the President to focus on what goes on in the classroom. He also advises cutting class size in the areas in which it will have the greatest impact, such as reading instruction. "You don't need smaller classes for physical education, art, music or even lunch," he says. Folger agrees with Clinton's focus on the early grades. "It makes sense," he says. "Kids are not well socialized when they come to kindergarten, even if they have been in head start or preschool. Teachers can't easily give effective large group instruction, and the children clearly need to be socialized to the educational environment. "There is a lot of evidence that remedial work at the early grades is much more effective than it is later. Trying to remediate in high school or college is much more difficult and costly, and in many cases it just doesn't work."
Vanderbilt University is a private research university of approximately 5,900 undergraduates and 4,300 graduate and professional students. Founded in 1873, the University comprises 10 schools, a public policy institute, a distinguished medical center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, education and human development, engineering and music; and a full range of graduate and professional degrees.
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