Class-Size Reduction Program: Boosting Student Achievement in Schools Across theNation: A First-Year Report

摘要

Parents and teachers have long known that smaller classes make a difference.Students in smaller classes have higher achievement levels, fewer discipline problems, and more personal attachment to their teachers and classmates. A growing body of well-designed research, including experimental research using random assignment, is confirming this conventional wisdom. In 1998, Congress responded to President Clinton's call for a national initiative to lower class size in the early grades to no more than 18 students. Research indicates that classes that small are effective in helping to improve academic achievement, especially for disadvantaged students. That year, Congress made a bipartisan commitment to provide a down payment on a proposed seven-year phase-in of the Class Size Reduction program. The fiscal year (FY) 1999 appropriation of $1.2 billion enabled school districts across the nation to hire an estimated 29,000 new teachers for the 1999-2000 school year. This July, the U.S. Department of Education awarded an additional $1.3 billion in FY 2000 funds to enable states and local school districts to continue their class-size reduction efforts. This report highlights the benefits of the Class-Size Reduction program after just one year of implementation. Though this is only a modest beginning to reach our nationwide goal, the past year saw 1.7 million young children learning in smaller, more personalized, classrooms.