Effect of Class size on Students Achievement

Abstract

This research is being carried out to determine if there is a relationship between class size and its effect on students’ performance. Preliminary research indicates that there is a negative correlation between these two variables. However, final hypothesis testing can only be completed after the research has concluded. It has been discovered that the number of students in a class can impact how much is learned in various ways (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran & Willms 2001). For instance, it could influence how students interact with each other and their level of social engagement. This may lead to more or less noise and disruptive behavior, which can affect the types of activities that teachers are able to promote.

It could affect how much time the teacher is able to focus on individual students and their specific needs rather than on the group as a whole. In theory, the smaller the class size, the more likely individual attention can be given. This is because it is easier to focus on one individual in a smaller group. The class size could also affect the teacher’s allocation of time and effectiveness in other ways, such as how much material can be covered (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran & Willms 2001).

When teachers have smaller classes, they may choose different methods of teaching and assessment. For example, they may assign more writing or provide more feedback on students’ written work. They may also use open-ended assessments or encourage more discussions – all activities that are more feasible with a smaller number of students.

Exposure to a particular learning environment can have an impact on learning during the time of exposure, as well as longer-term or delayed effects. These effects may include improved self-esteem or cognitive development that has lasting benefits (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran & Willms 2001).

Statement of the problem.

The research problem is to determine if there is a relationship between class size and its effect on students’ performance. Preliminary research indicates a negative relationship between the two variables; however, final hypothesis testing can only be conducted after completing the research. The number of students in a class has the potential to affect learning in various ways (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran & Willms 2001). For instance, it could impact how students interact with each other and their level of social engagement. This may lead to more or less noise and disruptive behavior that affects the teacher’s ability to promote certain activities. Additionally, it could impact how much time teachers can devote to individual students’ specific needs as opposed to focusing on the group as a whole. In theory, smaller class sizes allow for more individual attention from teachers since they can focus on one student at a time. Furthermore, class size may also affect teacher effectiveness by influencing their allocation of time and how much material they can cover (Ehrenberg et al., 2001). Teachers may adopt different teaching methods or assessments when working with smaller classes such as assigning more writing tasks or providing feedback on written work. They may also encourage discussions or use open-ended assessments that are more feasible with fewer students present. Exposure to specific learning environments may have both short-term effects during exposure and long-term effects such as increased self-esteem or cognitive development (Ehrenberg et al., 2001).

The purpose of the study is to investigate and analyze the effects of social media on mental health. The study aims to identify the relationship between social media usage and various mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Additionally, it seeks to explore the impact of different types of social media platforms on mental well-being. The findings from this study can provide insights into how individuals can use social media in a healthy way and inform policymakers about potential regulations or guidelines regarding social media usage.

The purpose of this research is to find sufficient evidence, backed by relatively accurate data, to either reject or not reject the claim that there is a negative relationship between class size and student achievement in a classroom setting.

Research Question and Hypothesis

The objective of this research is to find an answer to the question: What is the perception of 2nd grade teachers regarding the relationship between class size and student achievement in reading?

At the end of this research, based on the collected data, we will either reject or fail to reject the hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between class size and student achievement in reading.

Limitation.

The measurement of class size is not as straightforward as it might seem (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran & Willms 2001). It can vary considerably for a single child at different times during a school day and school year due to student mobility, absences, truancy or the presence of pull-out special education classes. Therefore, a class with 20 registered pupils will vary in size from day to day and may have far fewer than 20 pupils at certain times. In middle and secondary school grades, class size tends to vary by subject area and therefore can differ for each pupil during a school day. Ideally, one would like to have an accurate measure of the actual class size experienced by every pupil throughout the entire school year (Ehrenberg et al., 2001). Although data on class sizes may be available to researchers who intensively study a small number of classrooms, in practice data on pupil/teacher ratios are more readily available for most researchers than detailed information on class sizes.

The data on pupil/teacher ratios can be used to analyze the correlation between schooling outcomes and pupil/teacher ratios. However, this correlation is expected to be weaker than the correlation between schooling outcomes and class size. This is because class size has a closer connection with learning. Unfortunately, it is rare for class-size data to include a temporal dimension; in most cases, researchers use data that pertains to the number of pupils enrolled in a class. As such, class-size” measures usually have significant measurement errors (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran & Willms 2001). If this measurement error is random, then estimates of the relationship between schooling outcomes and class size will be biased toward zero. In other words, on average, the estimated relationships will be smaller in absolute value than the actual relationships between class size and school outcomes.

Chapter Summary

This chapter introduces the research that will be carried out regarding the relationship between class size and its effect on student achievement. The statement of the problem, research question, and hypothesis to test are also presented in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

There is a considerable amount of educational literature that focuses on the effect of class size on student achievement (Melvin, Roy & Michelle, 2005). Hanushek (2001) reviewed this literature and found mixed results when attempting to empirically identify the relationship between class size and student achievement. Out of the 277 studies investigated, he reports that only 14% show a significant and positive relationship between class size and student achievement, while another 14% show a significant but negative relationship. The remaining 72% show an insignificant relationship between class size and student achievement.

In a recent issue of this journal, Iacovou (2002) found evidence that smaller classes are related to higher reading scores but not related to mathematics scores (Melvin, Roy & Michelle, 2005). However, these studies were typically hindered by at least one of four factors:

1. The use of a student/teacher ratio as the measure of class size resulting in measurement error previously discussed by Hanushek (2001)
2. The estimation of a mis-specified model resulting from the failure to control for family effects such as innate ability previously discussed by both Hanushek (2001) and Borland and Howsen (2000)
3. The general failure to take into account the endogeneity of class size with respect to student achievement
4. The employment of an incorrect functional form in the specification of the relationship between class size and student achievement

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of class size on student achievement without being hindered by any aforementioned factors typically associated with prior studies. The results suggest that not only is there a non-linear relationship between class size and student achievement but also it is non-monotonic (Melvin, Roy & Michelle, 2005).

An additional problem with earlier studies attempting to estimate the effect of class size on student achievement is the correlation between class size and the omitted variable of student innate ability. Studies by Hanushek (1986) and Iacovou (2002), which recognize this relationship, have been unable to control for such ability due to data limitations. Therefore, estimates of coefficients on class size in previous studies may be biased.

This paper minimizes this problem by including a measure of innate ability, previously typically omitted from the student achievement equation. Innate ability is defined as the cognitive skills index value for each student within a class. The test assesses academic aptitude, including verbal, non-verbal, and memory skills related to sequences, analogies, memory, and verbal reasoning.

(Melvin, Roy & Michelle 2005)

A further complication referenced in earlier studies results from the fact that class size is not exogenous with respect to student achievement. According to Hoxby (2000), the vast majority of variation in class size is due to choices made by parents, schooling providers, or courts and legislatures. Despite researchers frequently claiming that the variation in class size is not endogenous to student achievement, they rarely attempt to explain where such variation comes from. In their studies, Hoxby (2000), Iacovou (2002), and Bradley and Taylor (2002) use an array of exogenous variables as proxies or instruments for class size.

This paper pursues an alternative technique for accounting for the endogeneity of class size with respect to student performance by using the predicted value of class size from the first stage of a two-stage least squares estimation of the system (Melvin, Roy & Michelle 2005). To our knowledge, this is the first time that class size has been treated as an endogenous variable by instrumenting within a two-stage least squares framework.

Despite the claims of proponents who argue that there is a relationship between class size and student achievement, The Heritage Foundation takes a different stance. According to Rees and Johnson (2000), they assert that there’s no evidence that smaller class sizes alone lead to higher student achievement.

Reviewers of class size studies disagree on the impact of reducing class size. According to Biddle and Berliner (2002), one study suggests that large reductions in class size can lead to significant learning benefits, which were previously thought unattainable by educators (Glass, Cahen, Smith & Filby, 1982). However, another study argues that there is not enough evidence to support the idea that reducing overall class sizes will have a systematic effect on student performance (Hanushek, 1999).

Chapter Summary

Preliminary research indicates a negative relationship between the two variables. However, final hypothesis testing can only be conducted after completing the research. More than 100 experiments and quasi-experimental studies have been conducted to examine the effects of class size, with each involving students’ assignment to smaller or larger classes. Nevertheless, most class-size experiments have been small-scale and short-term, making it challenging to determine whether experiment-specific circumstances caused the effects and whether they would occur in a more natural setting. In other words, while small-scale experiments may possess high internal validity, it is difficult to ascertain their generalizability to other settings.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Subjects

The study’s database will consist of different early primary level schools. Our focus is on grade 2 students, making them the subjects of our research. As previously noted in the literature review, information about the teacher is also crucial. Therefore, we will gather valuable data from them, and they can be considered our secondary subjects for this study (see Appendix pg14).

Research Design

This research will be a cross-sectional study as we collect data about students’ performance from primary schools and conduct interviews with teachers. The study will consist of two phases. During the first phase, we will gather data from various schools on past student achievement trends and class enrollment. In the second phase, we will conduct brief interviews with teachers, preferably from the same schools, to better understand the relevance of the data (see Appendix pg14).

Analysis of Data

The data will be analyzed by constructing a model of relevant factors that affect the relationship other than our primary variables of class size and student achievement. These variables can be determined in terms of time, as the literature review shows that class size affects the total amount of time given to each student by the teacher. The components in our model can include the attainment during the time a student has been exposed to school resources and the duration for which they have been exposed to these resources.

Another set of factors that needs to be analyzed relates to the characteristics of the school community where students have been educated each year until they reach a certain age, as well as the characteristics of the classrooms in which they were enrolled. The way students are grouped in classrooms may also affect their learning. Students in heterogeneous classes, with varying levels of ability, may learn more or less than those enrolled in homogeneous classes with similar ability levels.

Instrumentation

The instruments to be used, as identified in earlier sections, are surveys for data from primary schools. This will require visits and acquiring various informational documents. As mentioned before, this will be a cross-sectional research; therefore, a round of brief interviews with the teachers of primary schools shall also be conducted (refer to Appendix pg14).

Chapter Summary

This chapter highlights the statement of the problem, research methodology, and database of subjects. The chosen methodology is cross-sectional and requires a pair of data instruments.

References.

Biddle, Bruce J. and Berliner, David C. (2002). Small Class Size and its Effects.” Educational Leadership, Vol. 59, Issue 5, Feb2002, pp. 12-20.

Borland, M. V., and R. M. Howsen (2000). Manipulable Variables of Policy Importance: The Case of Education.” Education Economics, 8, pp. 241–248.

Bradley, S. and J. Taylor (2002) examined the relationship between ethnicity, educational attainment, and the transition from school in their Working Paper 007 from Lancaster University Management School.

Ehrenberg, Ronald G., Brewer, Dominic J., Gamoran, Adam, and Willms, J. Douglas (2001). Class Size and Student Achievement.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Vol. 2, No. 1 (May 2001). Blackwell Publishing Limited.

Glass, G. V., Cahen, L. S., Smith, M. L., and Filby, N. N. (1982) conducted research on school class size and its impact on policy in Beverly Hills, CA published by Sage.

Hanushek, E. A. (1986). The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public Schools.” Journal of Economic Literature, 24, pp. 1141-1177.

Hanushek, E. A. (1999) conducted an independent investigation of the Tennessee STAR experiment and other investigations of class size effects. The findings were published in Education Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 21(2), 143-163.

Hanushek, E. A. (2001). Evidence, politics, and the class size debate. Retrieved from http://edpro.stanford.edu/eah.htm.

Hoxby, C. M. (2000a). The Effects of Class Size on Student Achievement: New Evidence from Population Variation.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, pp. 1239–1285.

Iacovou, M. (2002). Class Size in the Early Years: Is Smaller Really Better?” Education Economics, 10, pp. 261–290.

Melvin V. Borland, Roy M. Howsen, and Michelle W. Trawick conducted a study in 2005 titled An Investigation of the Effect of Class Size on Student Academic Achievement” which was published in Education Economics Volume 13, Issue 1 in March of that year.

Rees, N. S., and Johnson, K. (2000, May 30) wrote an article titled A Lesson in Smaller Class Sizes” which can be found on Heritage Views 2000 [Online]. The article is available at www.heritage.org/views/2000/ed053000.html.

Appendix

Questionnaire Form for Teachers

Surname:

First Name:

Gender: Male Female

Contact Number:

Teaching Experience:

• School Name:
• School Name:
• School Name:

Name and Classes Taught:

_______________________________________________

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