What is the average class size in public schools

For example, a small school that has 15 first-grade students in one year and 18 the next year would have a larger class during the second year. Additionally, a school that has set a class-size limit of 25 would have one second-grade class of 25 if there were 25 second-grade students but two classes of 13 if there were 26 students.

Hoxby finds no relationship between class size and achievement in fourth and sixth grade which should reflect class size in all previous grades.

Hoxby does not even find class-size effects at schools that serve disproportionately large shares of disadvantaged or minority students.

Beginning with the school year, the maximum number of students in each core class would be: 18 students through grade 3; 22 students in grades 4 through 8; and 25 students in grades 9 through In , the Florida Legislature enacted a law that implemented the amendment by first requiring, from to , districts to reduce their average class sizes either to the maximum for each grade grouping or by at least two students per year until they reached the maximum.

Beginning in , compliance was measured at the school level, with schools facing the same rules for their average class size that districts faced previously. Beginning in , compliance was measured at the classroom level. Taking advantage of the staggered introduction of class-size reductions over time at the district and school level, Chingos utilized a sophisticated before-and-after analysis to examine the effects of the policy on student achievement between and He finds no evidence that the Florida policy had any impact on test scores in grades 3 through 8 state-wide assessments in math and reading were not administered in the earlier grades.

Because the pool of credible studies is small; the individual studies differ in the setting, method, grades, and magnitude of class size variation that is studied; and no study is without issues, including those reviewed here, conclusions have to be tentative. It appears that very large class-size reductions, on the order of magnitude of fewer students per class, can have meaningful long-term effects on student achievement and perhaps on non-cognitive outcomes. The academic effects seem to be largest when introduced in the earliest grades, and for students from less advantaged family backgrounds.

They may also be largest in classrooms of teachers who are less well prepared and effective in the classroom. The Tennessee STAR experiment generates the largest estimate of the payoffs of a big decrease in class size. In other words, it paid its way. All other studies of CSR generate either smaller estimates of the effects of variation in class size or find no effects at all.

Getting a decent sense of the size of the effect that can be expected from reducing class size is obviously important to evaluating its benefits. One way to roughly estimate the size of class-size effects that is consistent with the existing literature would be to assume that the effects are linear, i. The largest estimates of the magnitude of class-size effects are those produced by Krueger , who found that the students in classes that were 7 to 8 students smaller on average than regular-sized classes performed about 0.

This means that students performed about 3 percent of a standard deviation better for every 1 student less in the class. These effects were generated largely by class-size reductions in kindergarten. If we take the effect by 5 th grade to be half the size of the kindergarten effect, then a reduction in 1 student per class would generate approximately 1.

This means that on a statewide assessment such as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills TAKS , which has a mean of about and a standard deviation of about at 5th grade for mathematics, a reduction in class size by one student would generate an improvement of 1.

Thus a statewide mean of on TAKS would become a statewide mean of Alternatively, an increase of class size by one student would lead to a statewide mean of At grade three the effect would be about 2 points up or down assuming an effect size for a 1 student reduction of 2.

To put a one or two point change in student performance as a result of class size in context, the difference between the average scale scores of whites and blacks on TAKS at 5 th grade is 65 points. Estimates that averaged together effect sizes for all the studies we have reviewed, including the two that found no effects at all Hoxby; Chingos , would obviously be considerably smaller. Will a dollar spent on class-size reduction generate as much return as a dollar spent on: raising teacher salaries, implementing better curriculum, strengthening early childhood programs, providing more frequent assessment results to teachers to help guide instruction, investments in educational technology, etc.?

Thus, estimates of effects and costs from different education investments have to be extrapolated and estimated from different studies, and this process is necessarily inexact. Nevertheless, Harris finds short-term rates of return for computer-aided instruction, cross-age tutoring, early childhood programs, and increases in instructional time that are all greater than those for CSR.

The popularity of class-size reduction may make it politically difficult for policymakers to increase class size in order to sustain other investments in education, even in a time of budget austerity.

In that context, state policymakers might consider targeting the reductions at students who have been shown to benefit the most: disadvantaged students in the early grades, or providing a certain amount of funding for CSR but leaving it up to local school leaders on how to distribute it.

Much smaller classes for inexperienced teachers who need support in developing skills or for teachers who are responsible for struggling students may make more sense than across the board reductions.

The tradeoff between class size and teacher salaries needs to be very carefully considered. Effects on student achievement related to differences in teacher quality are very large. The same data from the Tennessee STAR study that demonstrates long-term effects for class-size reduction produces estimates of much larger effects for variation in teacher quality within schools.

Thus, for example, while differences between large and small classes in early elementary school had no long-term effects on the earning power of adults, differences in classroom quality did. It means that funds that might be devoted to raising teacher salaries across the board or selectively in hard to fill positions or for highly effective teachers will be limited.

By one estimate, an increase in average class size by 5 students would result in an across the board increase of 34 percent in teacher salaries if all the savings were devoted to that purpose. Many states and districts are contemplating cuts in funding that will require schools to make hard choices. When California reduced class size in , the state found that it did not have enough veteran teachers or classrooms to meet the challenge.

Schools were forced to hire new teachers and add portable classrooms to accommodate the state mandate. Schools faced a dilemma: Was it really better to have smaller classes with an inexperienced teacher or larger classes with experienced teachers? Voters in the state of Florida approved a class-size reduction amendment in that requires classes to have no more than 18 students in pre-kindergarten through third grade classes, no more than 22 in fourth to eighth grade classes and no more than 25 in high school classes by In California, where class size reduction began in , the research has shown only a modest effect on achievement.

This disappointingly small gain has been attributed to the following:. The California experience points to an important lesson. Class size reduction, in and of itself, is not the answer to all the problems in education.

In order for a classroom to be effective, it must have a qualified teacher and adequate facilities. When weighing the advantages of class size reduction, schools, districts, and states must consider these questions:. School size may be as important as class size in influencing student behavior. In high schools, it is important to consider not only the number of students per class but the nature of the class, and the subject the teacher is teaching.

For example, a math teacher might have no problem teaching an advanced math class, or several math classes, with students. But an English teacher teaching four classes of 40 students would probably not be able to give the proper attention to written assignments from that many students, and might not give as many assignments because of the large number of students.

Some schools might have classes of 40 taught by a team of two teachers. An average Arizona elementary school averaged Arkansas averaged The average for high school classrooms was even higher, at California had an average elementary class size of 25 kids per room and an average high school class size of 35 students per room. Colorado averaged The average Connecticut elementary classroom had The average high school class size was 22 students per room.

Delaware's average elementary class size was The high school class size was Florida lacks data on average class sizes, but overcrowded schools have historically been such an issue that legislators passed an amendment to the Florida constitution limiting elementary class sizes to 22 students. The amendment also limits high school classrooms to 25 students.

The average Georgia elementary classroom had 21 kids in it. The average high school classroom was slightly more crowded, with Hawaii does not have clear data on its school class sizes but a state Department of Education recommendation suggested an "optimum class size" would be 20 students for kindergarten through third grade and 26 students for fourth to 12th grade.

Illinois had an average elementary class size of In , Idaho had an average elementary class size of Indiana had an average elementary class size of Iowa had an average of Kansas's average elementary school was made up of The average Kentucky elementary school had Vermont Interpret data with caution.

The coefficient of variation CV for this estimate is between 30 percent and 50 percent i.