SIZING DOWN

• Published in: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M. : 1988)
• Main Author: Wallace K. Pond, with photo by Abel Uribe
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Santa Fe, N.M Santa Fe New Mexican 21.02.1999
• ISSN: 1938-4068

There is solid research that tells us that smaller classes lead to improved student performance, more satisfaction on the part of both teachers and students, better attendance, decreased disciplinary problems and other benefits. We have extensive empirical data from multiple studies, the most compelling of which tracked roughly 11,000 students for more than a decade in Tennessee from 1985 to 1997 that demonstrated clearly that small classes (not more than 15 students) led to better student achievement and better student behaviors than classes with 22 or more students, even if they had teaching assistants. Many contemporary schools at both the elementary and secondary levels are so large that teachers are institutionally separated from one another by building wings (or buildings), academic departments, staggered schedules, grade levels, and other bureaucratic structures put in place in an attempt to maintain some sense of order. Of course, students endure the same kinds of separations and anonymity. Naturally, under these circumstances schools become bureaucracies rather than communities, and students inevitably fall through the cracks. They fall through the cracks because they aren't connected in meaningful ways to the adults who serve them (or to many other students for that matter). They are "numbers" or computer entries on attendance lists and grade sheets. They are not human beings connected to other human beings in significant relationships. They are "obligations" to be shuttled through the system.