Education is a pillar of modern society and
the subject of endless, often passionate
arguments about how it can best be
improved. In the U.S., there is heated
debate following revelations that the country’s
secondary school students perform
poorly relative to many Asian and European
students. The news coincided with increasing
concern over the nation’s urban and
lower-income suburban schools, too many
of which are languishing at achievement
levels far below those of middle-class and
upper middle-class suburban schools.
Of all the ideas for improving education,
few are as simple or attractive as reducing
the number of pupils per teacher. With its
uncomplicated appeal and lack of a big,
powerful group of opponents, class-size
reduction has lately developed from a subject
of primarily academic interest to a key
political issue. In the United States, more
than 20 states and the federal government
have adopted policies aimed at decreasing
class sizes, and billions of dollars have been
spent or committed in the past few years.
The demand for smaller classes is also
growing in Canada, Australia, the United
Kingdom, and even Japan, whose record of
secondary school performance is the envy of
most other developed countries.
The most obvious drawback to class-size
reduction is the huge cost. It requires more
teachers, more classrooms, and more classroom
equipment and resources. These
expenses can dwarf the price of alternative
schemes, such as testing teachers or increasing
their pay as a means of attracting better
candidates. The state of California,
for example, has been spending more than
$1.5 billion annually over the past several
years to reduce class size to 20 or fewer for
children in the four- to seven-year-old bracket.
On the other hand, if smaller classes really
do work, the economic benefits could be huge