Class Size and Student Performance at a Public Research University: A Cross-Classified Model

This study addresses several methodological problems that have confronted prior research on the effect of class size on student achievement. Unlike previous studies, this analysis accounts for the hierarchical data structure of student achievement, where grades are nested within classes and students, and considers a wide range of class sizes across various disciplines. Based on data from undergraduate class sections at a single institution, the study provides consistent evidence of a negative effect of class size on grade performance, most substantially affecting the achievement of “A” grades with lesser effect on grades of “C” or higher. Because models with logarithmic specification show superior fit, this study also demonstrates that the effect of class size on students’ final grades diminishes as the class size increases. These findings suggest that a larger impact on student performance could be attained by further trimming enrollment in small classes than by reducing class size overall.     

Measuring the impact of competition in local government education markets on the cognitive achievement of students

In this paper, the role of interjurisdictional competition among school districts is examined. Using 1970 California school district data and controlling for a variety of education inputs, achievement scores are found to rise as the local education market becomes more competitive. This relationship continues until a competitive threshold is reached, beyond which additional districts have no impact on achievement. It is estimated that three to four school districts per county are necessary to create a competitive market in education. These findings are consistent with similar studies examining the effect of entry in the private sector. Additionally, the results show a variety of parental, school and student inputs to be significant in “producing” student achievement.     

Does class-size reduction close the achievement gap? Evidence from TIMSS 2011

Policies about reducing class size have been implemented in the US and Europe in the past decades. Only a few studies have discussed the effects of class size at different levels of student achievement, and their findings have been mixed. We employ quantile regression analysis, coupled with instrumental variables, to examine the causal effects of class size on 4th-grade mathematics achievement at various quantiles. We use data from 14 European countries from the 2011 sample of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Overall, there are no systematic patterns of class-size effects across quantiles. Class-size effects are generally non-significant and uniform at different achievement levels, which suggests that in most European countries class-size reduction does not have an impact on student achievement and does not close the achievement gap. However, combined estimates across countries indicate that high achievers may benefit more from class-size reduction.     

What Satisfies Students? Mining Student-Opinion Data with Regression and Decision Tree Analysis

To investigate how students' characteristics and experiences affect satisfaction, this study uses regression and decision tree analysis with the CHAID algorithm to analyze student-opinion data. A data mining approach identifies the specific aspects of students' university experience that most influence three measures of general satisfaction. The three measures have different predictors and cannot be used interchangeably. Academic experiences are influential. In particular, faculty preparedness, which has a well-known relationship to student achievement, emerges as a principal determinant of satisfaction. Social integration and pre-enrollment opinions are also important. Campus services and facilities have limited effects, and students' demographic characteristics are not significant predictors. Decision tree analysis reveals that social integration has more effect on the satisfaction of students who are less academically engaged.     

Effects of year-round schooling on disadvantaged students and the distribution of standardized test performance

Using detailed longitudinal data for the state of California, this paper estimates the effect of year-round school calendars on nationally standardized test performance of traditionally disadvantaged students. The student subgroups studied in this paper are: low socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, Hispanic and Latino, and African American students. I find significant negative effects of multi-track year-round calendars on academic achievement for all subgroups examined, with only the limited English proficiency student subgroup producing unreliable estimates. Negative and significant results for another type of year-round calendar, single-track, are also found for the full sample of students and low socioeconomic status students.     

Understanding Student Evaluations of Teaching Quality: The Contributions of Class Attendance

Institutions of higher learning employ compulsory attendance policies with the expectation that these mandates enhance students' academic performance and perceptions of course quality. However, numerous empirical investigations demonstrate equivocal and often contradictory findings regarding the relationship between attendance and various markers of student achievement. The present investigation extends this research by exploring the utility of student ratings of the need to attend class in predicting their perceptions of teaching excellence after controlling for class size, instructor availability, and small-group interactions. As hypothesized, ratings of the need to attend predicted excellence while accounting for a significant 5.3% of the variance. Discussion and conclusions highlight the utility of class attendance in understanding students' evaluations of teaching and course quality.     

Class Size Effects on Fourth-Grade Mathematics Achievement: Evidence From TIMSS 2011

ABSTRACT

Class size reduction policies have been widely implemented around the world in recent years. However, findings about the effects of class size on student achievement have been mixed. This study examines class size effects on fourth-grade mathematics achievement in 14 European countries using data from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2011. We employ quasi-experimental methodology (i.e., instrumental variables and regression discontinuity) to facilitate causal inferences of class size effects. Although we find some evidence of class size effects in Romania and the Slovak Republic, overall there are no systematic patterns of class size effects across countries. The results indicate that in most European countries class size reduction may not improve mathematics achievement in fourth grade.     

Class size effects on mathematics achievement in Cyprus: evidence from TIMSS

Class size reduction has been viewed as one school mechanism that can improve student achievement. Nonetheless, the literature has reported mixed findings about class size effects. We used 4th- and 8th-grade data from TIMSS 2003 and 2007 to examine the association between class size and mathematics achievement in public schools in Cyprus. We employ instrumental variables methods, and take advantage of a regression discontinuity design to examine causal effects of class size on mathematics achievement. The results indicate a non-significant relationship between class size and mathematics achievement in 8th grades. However, there is evidence of positive class size effects in 4th grade. The gender gap is significant and favoured males in 4th grade and females in 8th grade. SES indexes such as parental education and items in the home are positively and significantly related to mathematics achievement. Teacher and school variables are not significantly related with mathematics achievement.     

Teacher and Classroom Context Effects on Student Achievement: Implications for Teacher Evaluation

The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) has been designed to use statistical mixed-model methodologies to conduct multivariate, longitudinal analyses of student achievement to make estimates of school, class size, teacher, and other effects. This study examined the relative magnitude of teacher effects on student achievement while simultaneously considering the influences of intraclassroom heterogeneity, student achievement level, and class size on academic growth. The results show that teacher effects are dominant factors affecting student academic gain and that the classroom context variables of heterogeneity among students and class sizes have relatively little influence on academic gain. Thus, a major conclusion is that teachers make a difference. Implications of the findings for teacher evaluation and future research are discussed.     

The Relationship between Increasing Enrolment and Student Academic Achievement in Higher Education

This article reports on a study of which the main aim was to provide insight into whether increasing the enrolment of large classes influences student academic achievement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), City, South Africa. The massification of higher education has led to greater numbers of students being enrolled in contact programmes. there is a widely accepted inverse relationship between class size and academic achievement for small class sizes and it would be speculative to extend the same understanding to larger class sizes. It is within this context that a cross-sectional study was conducted during which student achievement was analysed against increasing the enrolment of already large classes, in selected undergraduate modules at UKZN over a period of four years. convenience sampling and judgemental sampling were used to select modules in the discipline of Supply Chain Management (SCM). The findings revealed that while the average class size increased significantly, the pass rates remained constant. Based on the study findings, it was concluded that an increase in the enrolment of already large classes does not influence student academic achievement. It is recommended that the study be replicated in other schools and faculties where disciplines have experienced similar increases in the enrolment of large classes, thereby presenting an opportunity to either validate or dispute the study results. It is further recommended that the role of peer effects be subjected to further study to establish whether they have any influence on academic achievement. These results are expected to encourage future debate on how faculties manage increasing student enrolments at higher education institutions.     

An Examination of the Effect of Elementary School Size on Student Academic Achievement

Prior studies that have investigated the relationship between school size and student academic achievement have produced conflicting results. For example, some studies found a positive relationship between school size and student achievement; other studies found that the relationship is negative. Typically, however, these past studies have not accounted for the influence of student ability in their analysis of the impact of school size on student achievement. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of school size on student achievement while accounting for student ability, among other variables. The results reported in this paper suggest that school size has a nonlinear relationship with respect to student achievement. Thus, there is an optimal school size with respect to the maximization of student achievement.     

Do local contributions affect the efficiency of public primary schools?

Are public schools that rely on local resources for a greater share of their financing more cost-effective? Could financial decentralization lead to more efficient schools? This paper attempts to answer these questions using cost, financial sources and student achievement data from Philippine primary schools, which are financed primarily from central sources but which also raise funds from other sources, to differing degrees. It concludes that schools which rely more heavily on local sources, such as contributions from the local school board, municipal government, parent-teacher associations (PTA) and other sources are more efficient—i.e. have lower cost, holding constant for enrollment and quality. A 1% increase in the share of financing coming from local sources will lead to a decline in total costs of 0.135%, or about the cost of providing for a place for one more student.     

Class size effects on reading achievement in Europe: Evidence from PIRLS

Some researchers have suggested that reducing class size may result in increases in student achievement. However, the empirical evidence about class-size effects from experimental or quasi-experimental studies has been mixed overall. This study sheds more light on whether class size reduction impacts reading achievement in eight European countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. We examine class size effects on reading achievement using national probability samples of fourth graders. All eight European countries had participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2001, 2006 and 2011. Overall, the results indicate that class size effects on reading achievement are not significant across countries and years. One exception was Romania where class size effects in 2001 and 2011 were significant and negative suggesting that reducing class size corresponded to increases in reading achievement. Trends in class size effects over time were not observed.     

Class Size and Teacher Quality

The `Vinson Report' on Public Education in NSW has become received wisdom. The report's recommendation on class sizes has attracted more attention than any other. This is unfortunate because it is on this issue that the Report is weakest. A thorough appraisal of the research on class sizes reveals that many studies have methodological problems that make their application in a real world context doubtful; many studies have introduced other reforms such as curriculum changes at the same time as class size reduction, making their individual effects impossible to determine; the large majority of studies have found no significant effects of class size on student achievement, while the remainder have shown small benefits, usually only when classes have less than 20 students; class size has less effect when teachers are competent; and the single most important influence on student achievement is teacher quality. Research shows unequivocally that it is far more valuable, both in educational and fiscal terms, to have good teachers than lots of teachers. It must be ensured that the current and incoming teaching force is the best it can be, before seeking to expand it.Key Words: child development, class size, public education, student achievement, teacher quality, teaching methods     

University class size: Is smaller better?

This study investigates the relationship between class size and achievement at the college level. Recent meta-analyses have found a strong relationship between class size and student achievement, but few of the studies examined class size larger than 40 or university-age populations. This analysis examines a university's testing-center data-archives representing 305 sections from 24 different courses. Section sizes ranged from 13 to 1,006. A total of 16,230 test scores were analyzed. The results of this investigation reveal that at the college level, class size may be less important an influence on student achievement than some educators have thought.     

The impact of a universal class-size reduction policy: Evidence from Florida's statewide mandate

Class-size reduction (CSR) mandates presuppose that resources provided to reduce class size will have a larger impact on student outcomes than resources that districts can spend as they see fit. I estimate the impact of Florida's statewide CSR policy by comparing the deviations from prior achievement trends in districts that were required to reduce class size to deviations from prior trends in districts that received equivalent resources but were not required to reduce class size. I use the same comparative interrupted time series design to compare schools that were differentially affected by the policy (in terms of whether they had to reduce class size) but that did not receive equal additional resources. The results from both the district- and school-level analyses indicate that mandated CSR in Florida had little, if any, effect on student achievement.     

Effects of staff and student tutors on student achievement

In the problem-based curriculum of the faculty of Law, students of the first year are guided by staff tutors or undergraduate student tutors in small tutorial groups. In this study, academic achievement of staff tutor-guided groups are compared with student tutor-guided groups. After an eight-week course students' level of academic achievement was tested by essay questions. Two methods of assessing students' performance are used: expert judgements and propositional analysis. Results of both methods used indicate that no differences in academic achievement occur. Students guided by student tutors perform as well as students guided by staff tutors. Several explanations are proposed to account for these results.     

国内外中小学生学业成绩调查研究综述

随着知识经济时代的到来和国际竞争的日趋激烈,教育质量的监控和学生学业成绩调查已成为重要的研究领域。通过系统梳理国内外学生学业成绩调查研究现状,启示我们在进行学生学业成绩调查时,应以理论的创新为依据,在调查方法上应将定量与定性相结合,在指标体系构建上应纳入学生理解、解决问题的能力以及情感、态度、价值观等内容。     

The effect of block scheduling high school mathematics courses on student achievement and teachers' use of time: implications for educational productivity

Block scheduling involves the reallocation of instructional time into longer class sessions to encourage more active teaching strategies, reduce fragmentation inherent in single-period schedules, and improve student performance. To the degree that such policies reallocate existing resources to realize higher levels of desired educational outcomes, the goal of productivity can be served. Despite widespread experimentation with various forms of block scheduling, there is conflicting evidence on the impact of these innovations on student achievement, and little evidence of their effect on classroom practice. This study explores these relationships. More specifically, the study draws on data from the National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988 to estimate the impact of block-scheduled mathematics courses on tenth-grade student achievement and teachers' use of class time. Findings suggest that while block scheduling is positively associated with teachers' use of multiple instructional methods and more individualized instruction, this scheduling reform has a negative impact on students' tenth-grade mathematics scores, controlling for other factors. Implications for educational productivity are discussed.     

Are effective teachers like good parents? Teaching styles and student adjustment in early adolescence

This study examined the utility of parent socialization models for understanding teachers' influence on student adjustment in middle school. Teachers were assessed with respect to their modeling of motivation and to Baumrind's parenting dimensions of control, maturity demands, democratic communication, and nurturance. Student adjustment was defined in terms of their social and academic goals and interest in class, classroom behavior, and academic performance. Based on information from 452 sixth graders from two suburban middle schools, results of multiple regressions indicated that the five teaching dimensions explained significant amounts of variance in student motivation, social behavior, and achievement. High expectations (maturity demands) was a consistent positive predictor of students' goals and interests, and negative feedback (lack of nurturance) was the most consistent negative predictor of academic performance and social behavior. The role of motivation in mediating relations between teaching dimensions and social behavior and academic achievement also was examined; evidence for mediation was not found. Relations of teaching dimensions to student outcomes were the same for African American and European American students, and for boys and girls. The implications of parent socialization models for understanding effective teaching are discussed.