INTRODUCTION

Living in today’s society, it appears as though classrooms all over the world are being packed with students, many not receiving the attention they deserve. What is happening in the school system that is permitting this potentially educational damaging effect on young students learning? Are schools acknowledging this as a problem, and if so how do they intend to go about fixing it before making it worse? With the continuing changes to always improve schools for young students, educational reforms, policies, and movements are under constant and close surveillance by the public and administrations to produce not only the most beneficial experience, but the most effective as well. It is no secret that teachers, and parents view class size as an important and relevant factor in a student’s academic success. Although different developments have been made over the years throughout different provinces, school boards and administration are still fighting a battle between financial costs for smaller class sizes vs better education for students. Some provinces have done it through legislation, others through collective agreements with their teachers’ unions; others still have simply announced commitments for class size reductions, usually at budget time. Either way, this is a topic which deserves some attention and thought- what do we really want for our children?

LETS ASK.......

"Is there an ideal class size for greater student achievement in Canadian schools? What are some effects on children when this number is exceeded? "

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY....

This country has struggled on how to improve schools for decades since the late 1970’s to 1980’s. A crescendo of demands for “reform” reached its height with the publication of a Nation at Risk in 1983. Since then, a number of kinds of reforms have been investigated including assessment, school financing arrangements, and class size ratio. Class size ratio is identified as not only the number of students to the number of teachers in a classroom environment, but any additional professional aide in the classroom- for example teacher assistants, counselors, etc. However, most schools are not fortunate enough to have enough student assistants for every classroom. Pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) do not function as good tools for informing us about class size because teachers who work as administrators or provide instructional support are included in the full time equivalent (FTE) teacher count. One name continues to surface throughout this topic of research- Hanushek: Although not Canadian, Hanushek complied research on class size in 1998 with a number of important findings of contributions to the class size debate. Some of those were: -fall in pupil-teacher ratios -number of students mainstreamed into classrooms -a change in the student population as well as black students in the system These are all factors in why class size has become such a debatable topic. In the 1990’s, class sizes were a key factor in teacher collective bargaining in Ontario and class size averages were typically incorporated into agreements reached between teacher federations and school boards. However, class sizes have increased over time, apparently as an offset for higher teacher salaries. Early research literature on class size did in fact seem to show a link between smaller class sizes and improved learning. Although the literature suggests that class size has little or no impact on the acquisition of substantive knowledge or academic skills, smaller class sizes appeared at first to be somewhat more effective than larger ones in motivating students, producing attitudinal changes and enhancing higher order thinking and reasoning. As early as 1924, researchers compared the performance of students in a 100+ class with a 40+ class in the same course. Students in the small class did slightly better on an essay and mid term test while students in the larger class did slightly well on the quiz and final exam. In initial research, when measures other than the standard academic achievement measures were used, class size appeared to have some impact. Smaller classes were found to produce statistically significant differences in problem solving student attitudes to teaching and knowledge retention. But while the significant differences were small, thus the impact of class six it was suggested depended in part upon the educational goal.As early as 1924, researchers compared the performance of students in a 100+ class with a 40+ class in the same course. Students in the small class did slightly better on an essay and mid term test while students in the larger class did slightly well on the quiz and final exam. In initial research, when measures other than the standard academic achievement measures were used, class size appeared to have some impact. Smaller classes were found to produce statistically significant differences in problem solving student attitudes to teaching and knowledge retention. But while the significant differences were small, thus the impact of class six it was suggested depended in part upon the educational goal.

PROJECT STAR

Although it is not Canadian, an important project worth mentioning for the purpose of researching class size history and surrounding effects is Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) from Tennessee. Project STAR, was an experiment conducted by the State of Tennessee in the mid1980s. Project STAR, the most reputable and frequently cited study of class size, was a four-year, large-scale randomized experiment in which kindergarten students were randomly assigned to small classes (13 - 17 students), larger classes (22 - 26 students) or larger classes with a full-time aide. Key results with respect to academic achievement and classroom behavior include the following: There were statistically significant differences found among the three class types on all achievement measures and in all subject areas in every year of the experiment (K - 3). On average, students in small classes had superior academic performance to students in larger classes. There were no significant differences found between classes with teacher aides and regular classes in any year of the study. The small-class advantage was found for both boys and girls. The benefits were substantially greater for minority students or students attending inner-city schools in each year of the study. Students who had been in small classes exhibited superior engagement behaviors in grade 4 including; more effort spent on learning activities, more initiative, and less disruptive or inattentive-withdrawn behaviour. In addition to improvements in achievement and behavior, Finn also noted the following results from Project STAR: teacher morale increased and teachers spent more time in active teaching and less on classroom management. There were fewer disruptions and fewer discipline problems. Students' engagement in learning activities increased and the number of students who had to repeat a grade was reduced. The problems teachers encounter in teaching and managing classes were not reduced when a teaching assistant was present. The Lasting Benefits Study, a five-year follow-up study on project STAR, demonstrated that the positive effects in the early grades result in math, reading, and science achievement gains that persist at least through grade 8. These results are in favor for class size reduction for smaller classes, and the potentially lasting effects on student’s achievement smaller classes, at an early age, may have ( Although slightly outdated, the most similar research to project STAR conducted in Canada happened in 1970 where by the Board of Education of Toronto, together with the Toronto Teachers’ Federation conducted a study. The study was designed to examine differences between four class sizes, from 16 to 37 pupils by randomly assigning students and teachers to a particular class size (16, 23, 30 or37). Sixty-two classes of students in the fourth and fifth grades from 11 schools in Metropolitan Toronto participated. The study showed that class size makes a large difference to teachers’ attitudes and expectations, while having little or no effect on students or on instructional methods used. There were no significant differences attributable to class size for achievement in art, composition, vocabulary, reading and mathematics problem solving. Although no direct connection was made, it must be noted that class size makes a difference to teacher’s attitudes and expectations. This in turn can have a direct effect on student achievement, as noted below.

PROVINCIAL POLICIES

There are two different types of schools within educational systems worldwide- public and private. The category of private school is used to refer to independent schools in which parents pay tuition to have their child attend. Designated public schools refer to neighborhood or ‘catchment zone schools’ in which students are assigned to a school by the school board according to the geographic location of their home. There has been a great deal of construction within educational boards and governments in terms of solidifying a regulation for class size. Ontario is a large Canadian educational jurisdiction of close to two million students and almost 5,000 schools. 72 school boards provide education, organized into four school board systems: English language public boards; English language Catholic boards; French language public boards and French Language Catholic boards. All boards offer junior and senior kindergarten and all but two northern boards offer a full range of classes to grade 12. The province of Ontario is one of the few provinces that have begun to take action against large class sizes. Ontario has aimed to make a difference for students by changing school and classroom practices across the province while also generation public support and engaging teachers and other education staff in a positive way. Ontario has introduced a Class Size Reduction Initiative as of 2007-08. It has identified 2 different regulations on class size: one for the primary grades and one for the intermediate grades. This initiative put a cap on class sizes in the primary grades with a ration of 20:1 with the following guidelines: at least 90 percent of a board’s primary classes had 20 or fewer students, and up to 10 percent of a board’s primary classes could have a higher cap of up to 23 students. This is due to flexibility within a class (students changing schools and such factors.) This was initially introduced in 2004-05 with a total of 90 million dollars in funding. This pathed the way for an additional 1200 primary teaching jobs in the Ontario region. Intermediate class sizes in Ontario followed a different protocol under this new reform. Classes differ from board to board. In the 2008-09 school year, the average class size was recorded for each school board. The government has been continuously providing funding grants to gradually lower the average amount of students in intermediate classes. They have predicted a change of about .5 students, on average, will be reduced in each intermediate class. This proves to be a long, dragged out process with minimal results. On the Ontario Ministry of Education website, there is now a “class size tracker” available for parents, and teachers to view exactly how many students are in a certain class, in a specific school. Ontario seems to be one of the more advanced regions in terms of recognizing the benefits of smaller class sizes within schools and making changes to see this take effect. On the contrary, the province of Manitoba has taken the opposite view. In the Manitoba Education Act, it now shows a great deal of emphasis on welcoming caring and respectful safe schools- but how do they intend to accomplish this? Manitoba, in the final report of the Commission on Class Size and Composition, tabled in April 2002, concluded that a blanket approach, with provincially legislated caps on class size, would fail to address local needs and that class composition is more important than class size. It also states that not every class will have to reach the specified class number, just as long as overall the particular jurisdiction’s class average is achieved. This means that some classes could have upwards of 35 students in a class, and others have as few as 15 to even out the average overall. The Albertan guidelines states the following for the suggested provincial guidelines: junior kindergarten to grade will have between 3 - 17 students, grades 4 to 6 will have 23 students, grades 7 to 9 –will have 25 students and grades 10 to 12 will have 27 students. This being said however, the 2012 budget recognizes that smaller class sizes can have an impact on students, especially in Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes. Since 2004, more than $1.6 billion has been invested in the “Small Class Size Initiative”. In Budget 2012, class size funding increases from $226.3 million to $232 million or 2.5%. This funding accommodates a 1% increase in grant rates as well as an expected 4% increase in Kindergarten to Grade 3 students. School Boards will be required to post their class size survey results by January 15 of each year to ensure these funds are being effectively used to reduce class sizes.

. The province of British Columbia is divided into 60 school districts, which administer publicly funded education until the end of grade 12 in local areas or, in the case of francophone education, across the province. The British Columbia Liberals passed legislation in 2002 that stripped the firm class-size limits from their collective agreement with teachers, while also passing legislation that caps individual class sizes from kindergarten to grade three, as well as district-average class sizes in other grades up to 12

CFT NATIONAL SURVEY

In order to get an idea of what class size and composition look like across the country, CTF recently conducted a national survey of nearly 3,800 teachers representing 9,894 classes in English and French schools. The sample teacher pool was drawn from 12 participating CTF member organizations. These are among the survey findings; average class size is 21.3 students, ranging from 22.1 students for grades 4-8 to 19 students for junior kindergarten or kindergarten (JK-K). English schools (including immersion) have an average class size of nearly 22 students, while French as a first language schools have a slightly smaller average class size of just over 19 students. Average class size data of course only provides a piece of the overall picture. Our analysis of the distribution of class size by grade level reveals that: over a third of the classes for all grade levels combined contained 25 students or more (8.3% contained 30 students or more). For grades 4-8, nearly 39% of classes contained 25 students or more (6.5% contained 30 or more). For grades 9 and over, 40.3% of classes contained 25 students or more (13.5% – over 1 in 7 classrooms – contained 30 or more students). While the numbers were smaller at the primary level as expected (due in part to class size reduction initiatives in some jurisdictions), there were still significant numbers of classes exceeding 25 students; for grades 1-3, just over 14% of classes contained 25 students or more and for junior kindergarten to kindergarten nearly 12% of classes contained 25 students or more.

SOME BENEFITS TO LOWERING CLASS SIZE

It is no secret that teachers are highly in favor of reducing class sizes. Private schools pride themselves on higher academic achievement and lower class sizes, and the public largely agrees: “In each of five National Issues in Education polls commissioned by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) between 1997 and 2004, Canadians cited class size reduction as the most pressing educational spending priority. In the October 2004 poll, some 76 percent of those surveyed said that public school classes are too large. “ -Class size can make a big difference in the quality of education delivered in schools. -more direct and lasting attention a teacher could provide to each student -a focus on the needs of individual students occurs when teachers form small groups and during whole-class instruction -allow teachers to know and understand the needs of the individual students, allowing intervention earlier when problems arise -children misbehave less because of the family atmosphere -quick intervention by teachers -teachers spend more time on direct instruction and less on classroom management -classes include more “hands-on” activities -students become more actively engaged in learning than peers in large classes -teachers of small classes “burn out” less often -fewer students repeating grades could make-up for cost The effects of class size have impacts not only on students, but also on teachers, and their abilities to create an effective, learning and unique learning environment to all students. This can easily be compromised because of the number of students in a class. Teachers consistently adapt their teaching to address the individual needs of the learners in their classroom. As the classroom becomes larger and more diverse, this task becomes increasingly more difficult. In the 2011 Progress Report, the government said that “student[s] in smaller classes get more individual attention from teachers and other educators, helping improve literacy and numeracy and are more likely to succeed. Reducing class size in the early grades (K - 3) has been found to have academic benefits, especially for poor and minority children. Students in the later high school grades seem to be more set in their ways, and change in habits is difficult. Therefore it is important to implement smaller class sizes at an earlier age for students to ensure their educational experience is maximized early on”. It seems as though it would be impossible to talk about the classroom community without addressing those that have special needs or ESL students. Clearly, a classroom of smaller numbers would be of great benefit to them, as children with these circumstances also need a great deal of special attention as well. It would be much easier for these students to slip between the cracks in a larger class. “Where identified, special education students are integrated into regular classrooms, these classes must be smaller so that the needs of all students can be met. Where segregated classes exist for identified special education students, numbers are always kept extremely small i.e., in the single digits, because of the extra teacher time that is required to meet the needs of special education students”. Inclusion education is important and could easily be forgotten. Today, inclusion is a highly debatable topic for parents, teachers and administration, where inclusion is trying to help students reach their full potential. There is also support for the explanation of the way that small class size results in better student outcomes, from recent research on brain development. “One aspect of this research shows the importance of the emotional and psychological aspects of the learning environment. Learning is achieved when neural pathways are laid down in cooperation among several areas of the brain. These areas include those that control emotional regulation, attachment, and arousal, as well as those that control cognition and language. All of these areas are necessary in the creation and stabilizing of neural path-ways”. This is one of the ways by which negative stress interferes with learning and positive emotional/social contexts are associated with learning. The emotional quality of the interaction may be of equal or greater importance than the cognitive content. The calmer atmosphere of smaller classes, with less discipline problems, and fewer episodes of teacher management may be a more important component of what creates the difference.

RESEARCH AGAINST REDUCING CLASS SIZE

Class size does not necessarily appear to be a common denominator amongst all classes in achieving successful education. In fact, many are quick to argue that class size reduction does more harm than good. Many reports are now placing a great deal of emphasis on other factors other than class size for student achievement. Classroom organization and how well teachers distribute their time are some of many factors that help achieve student success. Whether this is experience gained by teachers throughout the years in the class, or teachers learning how best to facilitate their students, some argue that a teacher in control of this can make a class size of any number work. The more students there are in a class, the more experience, viewpoints and opinions there are to contribute to the class community. Many would argue that in order to achieve a successful, diverse, and eclectic class, you need a variety of students. Thus, the more students in the class, the more opportunity for experience there is. With a diverse population in the class, there comes a variety of young minds. Over the past few decades there has been a great change in the student population-positive and negative. As Hanushek mentions, many students today have less motivation, desire and drive to do well in school. Thus placing them in a class of 10 or 30 will hardly matter in terms of teacher attention. Unfortunately it is the truth that some students choose their path before setting foot in the classroom. A class size will not be a determining factor. Schools are no longer just a place for academics. More and more emphasis is being placed on student’s social education, and how this plays an important role in a child’s development. Student’s placement within a larger class allows more opportunity space for socialization, with more classmates. In many cases, low class sizes may result in multi-grade/multiage classrooms. These types of classes seem to have mixed reviews when it comes to their positive or negative effects on student achievement. Thus, variation in class size may be the result, rather than the cause, of differences in student ability and achievement. Teachers are strong advocates for reducing class size, but how much weight is for improving their own student’s success, and how much is for personal gain? Teachers are the first to admit working conditions are at an all time low, with over packed classrooms making even everyday tasks within the class difficult to achieve. Others argue that teachers are only strong advocates for reducing class size as a means to benefit only them. In allowing class sizes to remain on a stead increase, some argue that by survival of the fittest, the “best” teachers will remain in the classrooms, weeding out the weak. Cost in reducing class size is probably one of highest concern. Some of the costs identified in the research include quality classroom space (that does not result in lack of adequate space for other activities); the availability of a pool of good teachers; opportunities for teachers to learn new instructional strategies (including training and time to practice and get comfortable with them); proximity to other educational staff; and instructional resources (both materials and human expertise. Lowering class size requires funding for additional teachers, additional classrooms, and the operations costs of the additional classroom space. As an example, for the new Ontario Board policy for an additional 4,800 teachers, this is estimated to cost upwards of 386 million dollars. Many are concerned that this money should be spent elsewhere and wonder how much is too much or if the effects of smaller class size alone enough to justify this spending of educational dollars. Unfortunately, in order to support calls for class size reductions, there has been a tendency to pick and choose among available studies and evidence. Therefore there is no guarantee.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

The evidence of class size is obvious; teacher’s worry it will continue to grow and administration wants to increase it. One thing is the same-research is ongoing and inconsistent. Pupil-teacher ratios have fallen dramatically over the past few decades, however it seems to be at a stand still as the debate continues. Although not all parents have a choice in which school their children attend, it is worthwhile to mention that 60% of parents rank class size as a pivotal factor in having a choice for selecting a school. In Ontario, within each school board, the average class size in September 2012 will be 0.5 less than the original average of 2008-09. This would mean that in a school board where the average class size was 25 students in 2008-09, the average class size in 2012-13 is expected to be reduced to 24.5 students. Since September 2005 the government has funded secondary schools for an average class size of 22 students. Is this an indication of the slow, time consuming and costly adjustments being made to school policies regarding class sizes in Canadian schools? Although some provinces are taking initiative to pursue lower class sizes, others believe the money can be better spent else where within education. Whether this will increase the number of teachers AND students in a school, alas not reducing class sizes, is something yet to be established. Will extra money keep administrators away from larger classes, or just give an excuse to permit more bodies in a single class with a justification? How will it be documented that teachers are in fact giving students the extra attention this bonus brings about, or will it mean students are just being destined to bigger classes?

SO......

Class size and composition is not just a work issue — it is also a learning issue and a condition of spending issue. It is also a complicated issue. Class size matters - but students' achievements will not be improved by reducing class size alone. There are so many other characteristics that affect students academic achievement- capacities of teachers alone hold a great deal of influence. Academic aptitudes, level of motivation, knowledge on content, are just a few. To achieve the full benefits of smaller class sizes it is essential for students to be engaged in their studies and taught by well-prepared teachers who possess qualities as listed above. It is the overall effect a class size has on both the teachers, and the student’s attitudes that make the difference. People are assuming that a small class size makes for a better education, and just base this on numbers alone. However, it is the surrounding effects, attitudes and composition that make the difference. As noted by the Manitoba Teaching Society, small class size enables all students to reach their potential and the optimum class size for any class and level is directly related to composition of that class. Class size is certainly a highly debatable topic, and even though policy reforms are on the rise, the reasons for this still vary from province to province. There is no doubt that a balance perspective needs to be found in order to help teachers create a more manageable and successful classroom, as well as creating an environment where all students deserve to achieve higher learning. Class size reduction as a quick fix may not be enough. A reduction in the number of students in a classroom needs to work in partner with a teacher who is willing to maximize resources, students and outcomes and create an environment, which is accommodating to all students, regardless of the number. Teaching is a complex profession, consisting of a great deal of contributors for success. Maybe, instead of asking “whether” class size matters for achievement we should ask “how” class size affects achievement, and concentrate on making a change from there.