Skip to secondary content. Search for:. Organization For Accredited status, 7 affirmative answers are required, including standards 1 through 6 A school day consists of at least six hours, exclusive of lunch and recess periods.
In grades four and five, classes have a maximum of 33 students. This standard is interpreted as meaning that an aide is required whenever the maximum class size for classes without an aide is exceeded. This means that in grades one through three an aide is required whenever there are 26 or more students in a class and that an aide is also required whenever there are 19 or more students in a remedial class.
Principals of schools with 14 or more teachers have full time for administration and supervision. Either the principal or the assistant principal must have major responsibility in the elementary area. Studies of class size in Texas and Israel also found benefits of smaller classes, although the gains associated with smaller classes were smaller in magnitude than those in the Tennessee STAR study.
Other rigorous studies have found mixed effects in California and in other countries, and no effects in Florida and Connecticut. Because the pool of credible studies is small and the individual studies differ in the setting, method, grades, and magnitude of class size variation that is studied, conclusions have to be tentative. But it appears that very large class-size reductions, on the order of magnitude of fewer students per class, can have significant long-term effects on student achievement and other meaningful outcomes.
These effects seem to be largest when introduced in the earliest grades, and for students from less advantaged family backgrounds. There is no research from the U. The popularity of class-size reduction may make it difficult for policymakers to increase class size across the board in order to sustain other investments in education during a period of budget reductions.
In that context, state policymakers should consider targeting CSR at students who have been shown to benefit the most: disadvantaged students in the early grades, or providing a certain amount of funding for CSR but leaving it up to local school leaders on how to distribute it. In settings where state mandates on maximum class size are relaxed, policymakers need to bear in mind that the effect of any increase in class size will depend on how such an increase is implemented.
If the teachers to be laid off were chosen in a way largely unrelated to their effectiveness, such as seniority-based layoffs, then the associated increase in class size might well have a negative effect on student achievement. But if schools choose the least effective teachers to let go, then the effect of increased teacher quality could make up for some or all of the possible negative impact of increasing class size.
State resources for education should always be carefully allocated, but the need to judiciously weigh costs and benefits is particularly salient in times of austere budgets. Class-size reduction has been shown to work for some students in some grades in some states and countries, but its impact has been found to be mixed or not discernable in other settings and circumstances that seem similar. It is very expensive. The costs and benefits of class-size mandates need to be carefully weighed against all of the alternatives when difficult decisions must be made.
Edited by Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. Sawhill There are a small number of variables in American K education that are both thought to influence student learning and are subject to legislative action. Class size is one. Advocates for legislation on any of these topics are likely to appeal to research evidence as support for their position.
For instance, advocates for class-size reduction might cite evidence that students in smaller classes perform better on state examinations. But this simple correlation could be due to families with higher levels of education living in more affluent school districts that can afford smaller classes.
Research can be of high quality but of questionable relevance to legislative action because the settings and circumstances of the research are so different from those at hand. For example, a number of well-designed studies of class size in the U.
Considering the balance of the evidence is also very important. Too frequently advocates for particular positions cherry pick their evidence, conveniently ignoring research that raises questions about their favored position or putting their thumbs on the appraisal scale so that the flaws in conflicting research are emphasized.
Advocates for and against class-size reduction have engaged in or been accused of engaging in such cherry picking for as long as there has been research on this issue and the prospect of legislation. Finally, and most importantly, all legislative action that requires appropriations involves choices. An appeal to evidence to support expenditures without consideration of the costs and benefits of all the options that are available can seriously mislead.
With a limited and currently shrinking pool of state funds available to support K education, the relative productivity of expenditures should be carefully considered. What are the costs and benefits of maintaining a cap on class size relative to other state-mandated uses of funds for education?
And what are the costs and benefits of state mandates on specific uses of education funds relative to appropriations that allow more flexibility at the local level in how funds are spent? Matthew M. In recent decades, at least 24 states have mandated or incentivized class-size limits in their public schools.
State-level CSR initiatives flourished during a period of rapidly expanding per-pupil expenditure on public K education in the U. The average U. With about The costs of CSR are not limited to teacher salaries.
More classrooms are needed for smaller classes. In our example of a one-student reduction in class size across the U.
With the end of federal stimulus funding and economic growth at low rates, 40 states are projecting shortfalls for their budget year. Some, including large states such as California, Texas, and Illinois, are projecting revenue shortfalls that are more than 20 percent of the size of the budgets. Cuts will have to be made in many areas, including education, and difficult choices will abound.
In this context, we believe it is useful to revisit research on the effects of class size on student learning, and to explore what the findings from that research have to contribute to the budget deliberations that many state legislatures are presently or will shortly be engaged in. Does class-size reduction have a positive impact on student learning? If so, by how much, for whom, and under what circumstances? What would be the likely effect of relaxing class-size mandates?
What are the uncertainties in the conclusions that can be drawn from existing evidence about state CSR policies? There is a large body of research on the relationship between class size and student learning.
A systematic review of the literature identified 80 studies. The vast majority of these studies simply examine the association between variation in class size and student achievement. The primary difficulty in interpreting this research is that schools with different class sizes likely differ in many other, difficult-to-observe ways. For example, more affluent schools are more likely to have the resources needed to provide smaller classes, which would create the illusion that smaller classes are better when in fact family characteristics were the real reason.
Alternatively, a school that serves many students with behavior problems may find it easier to manage these students in smaller classes. A comparison of such schools to other schools might give the appearance that small classes produce less learning when in fact the behavior problems were the main factor. The average Connecticut elementary classroom had The average high school class size was 22 students per room.
Delaware's average elementary class size was The high school class size was Florida lacks data on average class sizes, but overcrowded schools have historically been such an issue that legislators passed an amendment to the Florida constitution limiting elementary class sizes to 22 students. The amendment also limits high school classrooms to 25 students. The average Georgia elementary classroom had 21 kids in it. The average high school classroom was slightly more crowded, with Hawaii does not have clear data on its school class sizes but a state Department of Education recommendation suggested an "optimum class size" would be 20 students for kindergarten through third grade and 26 students for fourth to 12th grade.
Illinois had an average elementary class size of In , Idaho had an average elementary class size of Indiana had an average elementary class size of Iowa had an average of Kansas's average elementary school was made up of The average Kentucky elementary school had Louisiana elementary schools averaged 19 kids per classroom and its high schools averaged The average Maine elementary school classroom had A report conducted by the Maryland Department of Education in determined there were The average Massachusetts elementary school had Michigan had an average elementary class size of Minnesota had an average elementary school class size of Mississippi averaged Missouri had an average elementary class size of Montana averaged Nebraska elementary schools averaged Nevada averaged New Hampshire has some of the smallest class sizes in the country.
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