Class Size
Students, teachers and administrators everywhere are hearing about the topic of class size reduction and it's benefits versus the costly measures that are being taken in order to implement this movement in education. Research has indicated that people agree with the idea that small educational settings will undoubtedly provide success for schools, students, as well as teachers (Are Smaller Schools the Answer?), but the inevitable problems that go along with reducing class sizes are also of major concern to the communities that surround the school. There are many factors which have contributed to the idea that class sizes should be reduced including: falling test scores, rising drop-out rates, increased school violence, trends toward career and character education, along with techniques favoring learner-oriented strategies that people feel need to be changed to better our students(Class Size). The question is, what measures can be tolerated to reduce class sizes? What sacrifices will the community have to make in order to solve the problem? There is no conclusive evidence that leads us to a definitive answer to this problem. So, the class size debate lives on in communities everywhere, and there doesn't seem to be a clear answ
Some educators believe more and more that students, especially in the primary grades, would benefit from a class size reduction to a national average of 18 students per classroom(Class Size Reduction: Success Stories). Studies such as Tennessee's Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) have shown that smaller classes are better for both the teacher and the students in both educational and social aspects(Class Size Reduction: Success Stories). It is obvious that the nation is motivated to try to improve school climate for both students and teachers, and the reduction of class size is one avenue that they are pursuing. Schools that are large already, and are considering class size reduction, have many options. Some common ways of accomplishing a more intimate atmosphere are described in the following plans. A House-Plan assigns students to groups (houses) within a large school where teachers and students belong to the same house. In this plan, the houses are governed by the school and don't develop their own curriculum or programs. Usually houses participate in extra-curricular activities of the school. Mini-Schools' Plans are similar to House-Plans in that they operate within a larger school structure, but this model generally establishes their own curriculum and instruction but depend on the larger school for their budget and support staff. Schools-within-schools are autonomous units that plan their own programs, have their own staff, and receive their own budget. The only connection between the schools-within-schools is that they share a common space(I HEROSI). These are all options that supporters of smaller classrooms are looking into. A supporter of this movement, Michael Klonsky, a Professor of Education a
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Approximate Word count = 1176
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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