Advantages Of Class Size

The Smaller the Class, the Better Students all across the U.S. have experienced various class sizes. Over the years, class sizes have been growing due to budget cuts in schools. According to an article written by Sam Dillon, “Over the past two years, California, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin have loosened legal restrictions on class size… Los Angeles has increased the average size of its ninth-grade English and math classes to 34 from 20. Eleventh- and 12th-grade classes in those two subjects have risen on average, to 43 students”. “Since the 1980s, teachers and many other educators have embraced research finding that smaller classes foster higher achievement” (Dillon). Due to the rise in class sizes, students have noticed a

have created a need to squeeze as many students as possible in one classroom. However, what isn’t considered is how this affects students’ learning experience. This causes a lack of individual attention and connection with the teachers, which is needed to be comfortable enough to ask the questions needed. From personal experience, being in a large class can be intimidating; asking one question that may sound stupid can be quite embarrassing. Another reason as to why large class sizes cause a lack of individual attention, from Seaman High School Students’ perspectives, is because when they go to receive help from their teacher, before or after school, or during seminar, it could take an hour to figure out one problem due to so many other kids getting help. Along with feeling a lack of individual attention, students have also noticed other negative effects of being in a larger class rather than a smaller

“An April 200 report by North Carolina’s State Board of Education on the relationship between school size and student achievement and behavior summed up the research in this area nicely. For elementary school students, there’s an inverse relationship between school size and student achievement: smaller elementary schools are associated with higher achievement.” Within this research, it states that for high school students, this relationship between class size and student achievement isn’t as clear. “…students at smaller schools don’t necessarily perform better academically; in fact, one study found that students at medium-sized schools (with between 600 and 900 students) did better academically than students from smaller and larger schools. However, research shows that smaller schools are associated with a host of other benefits for high school students: they are less likely to drop out or be expelled; they have better attendance; they’re more likely to be involved in extracurricular activities; and they’re more likely to pursue higher education” (GreatSchools Staff). As stated above, small classes are more affective in achieving higher success educationally during a child’s elementary years. “In the early grades, students are just beginning to learn about the rules of the classroom, and they are figuring out if they can cope with the expectations of education. If they have more