Smaller classes? Yes! (But ...). (Research corner: essentials on education data and analysis from research authority AEL).

Smaller classes? Yes! (But ...). (Research corner: essentials on education data and analysis from research authority AEL). Want to start a debate at your next board meeting? Try arguing thatsmaller class sizes really aren't effective, despite the popularsentiment in favor of them. The debate on the benefits of smaller classsize vs. the long-term costs and effects on the system continues torage. Scholars and analysts have not reached consensus on whether thebenefits are worth the costs, but a mountain of research suggests keypositives and a few negatives. Research suggests important benefits for children in smallerclasses include greater in-depth coverage of subject matter, enhancedlearning and stronger engagement, more personalized per��son��al��ize?tr.v. per��son��al��ized, per��son��al��iz��ing, per��son��al��iz��es1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner.2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. relationships withteachers, and safer schools with fewer discipline problems. For young students in smaller classes with high-quality teachers,the advantages are clear, with poor and minority students making thegreatest gains. WestEd researchers Bruce J. Biddle and David C. Berlinerrecently reviewed and evaluated class size research and concluded thatstudents who are in smaller classes in the early grades tend to dobetter academically than their peers in larger classes. This benefitbecomes more noticeable the longer the students are in classes that havefewer than 20 children. (In Tennessee, the state with the class sizereduction program of longest duration, smaller kindergarten kindergarten[Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary school but one in which children's creative play instincts would be classes had13 to 17 students; during a five-year pilot program in Wisconsin,student advantage decreased when K-3 classes exceeded 15 students.) Though class size reduction seems worthy of serious consideration,it should not be regarded as a panacea Some antidote or remedy that completely solves a problem. Most so-called panaceas in this industry, if they survive at all, wind up sitting alongside and working with the products they were supposed to replace. or used as a"stand-alone" reform. After California lowered class sizes ingrades K-3, schools were faced with large classes in higher grades andshortages of teachers with proper credentials CREDENTIALS, international law. The instruments which authorize and establish a public minister in his character with the state or prince to whom they are addressed. If the state or prince receive the minister, he can be received only in the quality attributed to him in his credentials. . Also in California,African-American students did not realize the dramatic gains seen amongAfrican-American students in Tennessee. Researchers concluded that classsize reduction initiatives could have the unintended consequence For the 1996 novel by John Ross, see .Unintended consequences are situations where an action results in an outcome that is not (or not only) what is intended. The unintended results may be foreseen or unforeseen, but they should be the logical or likely results of the ofexacerbating ex��ac��er��bate?tr.v. ex��ac��er��bat��ed, ex��ac��er��bat��ing, ex��ac��er��batesTo increase the severity, violence, or bitterness of; aggravate: racial and ethnic inequalities This page lists Wikipedia articles about named mathematical inequalities. Pure mathematicsAbel's inequality Barrow's inequality Berger's inequality for Einstein manifolds Bernoulli's inequality Bernstein's inequality (mathematical analysis) among students in urbanschools already struggling to provide special services to student bodiescharacterized char��ac��ter��ize?tr.v. character��ized, character��iz��ing, character��iz��es1. To describe the qualities or peculiarities of: characterized the warden as ruthless.2. by poverty, overcrowding overcrowdingovercrowding of animal accommodation. Many countries now publish codes of practice which define what the appropriate volumetric allowances should be for each species of animal when they are housed indoors. Breaches of these codes is overcrowding. , diversity and language barriers. Research suggests that reducing class size has the greatestpotential to improve student achievement when district administrators dothe following: * Integrate class size reduction with other school reforms. * Take into account direct and indirect costs Indirect costs are costs that are not directly accountable to a particular function or product; these are fixed costs. Indirect costs include taxes, administration, personnel and security costs. See alsoOperating cost ; look for ways toreduce class size without damaging other essential resources. * Accurately assess the amount of classroom space and the requirednumber and qualifications of teachers necessary. * Encourage state-level administrators to conduct trial class sizereductions in low-income areas with large minority student populationsbefore launching a large-scale initiative. * Provide teachers with professional development in theinstructional and organizational strategies that work best in smallclassrooms. * Plan and budget for data management and program evaluation Program evaluation is a formalized approach to studying and assessing projects, policies and program and determining if they 'work'. Program evaluation is used in government and the private sector and it's taught in numerous universities. . Forcitations of the references used in this article:www.districtadministration.com.Small is InNearly 40 states have some sort of class size limits, rangingfrom mandated sizes for every grade in Florida to voluntarysize suggestions for K-2 classes in North Carolina. Here isa sample of various state regulations on class sizes. Type ofState Grades regulation CommentsFlorida K-12 mandate to be phased in by 2010Oklahoma K-6 mandate K-6 student-teacher ratio 20:1Utah K-4 mandate emphasis on K-2 and improving reading skillsCalifornia K-4 voluntary/ 20:1 (targets K-3) incentiveVirginia K-3 voluntary emphasis on schools with at-risk students