January 6, 2005

Research: Small classes impact learning

By Wendy Leopold

In 1985, the state of Tennessee launched Project STAR, a study designed to determine whether small classes positively impact academic achievement. That experiment — considered one of the most important investigations in education — made it abundantly clear that small classes had a positive impact on the academic performance of all students.

What’s more, it found an added benefit for minority students, who showed immediate gains in achievement that were almost double those observed in white students in small classes.

Now, using data from a five-year follow-up to STAR, the authors of an article in the November/ December issue of the Journal of Educational Research for the first time provide robust evidence that the achievement benefits of small classes for minority students in reading carry over in the next five years of their academic life.

“We found that minority students in the fourth through eighth grades who initially experienced small classes had significantly higher reading achievement (nearly one-fifth of a standard deviation) than their white peers who also experienced four years of small classes,” said Spyros Konstantopou-los, assistant professor of education and social policy.

This finding is certain to resonate in education circles where closing the minority achievement gap is a major national concern and at a time when schools failing to narrow the gap face potential penalties under the No Child Left Behind Act.

“It is remarkable that an intervention that reduced class size in the early grades has such important and enduring effects for at least five years after the intervention,” Konstantopoulos said.