Does Class Size Matter?

decreasing class size. B One way investigators have attempted to analyze the effects of class size is by reviewing existing data, such as records kept by the U.S. Department of Education. These show that between 1969 and 1997, the average number of pupils per teacher in American public and private elementary schools fell from 25 to 18, a decline of greater than 27 percent. In secondary schools, the number also fell, from 19 to 14. Does these findings mean that class size makes no difference? Not necessarily. For a variety of reasons, most researchers, including us, pay little attention to those figures. For instance, schools strive for more than just high test scores; they also usually try to keep their dropout rates low. And indeed, the dropout rate for students aged 16 to 24 fell from 15 to 1 percent over that period. Because dropouts generally come from the low end of the achievement distribution, a reduction in the dropout rate could, be expected to pull down average test scores in the upper grades. Ideally, U.S. students would all come from families that are financially well off, with two highly educated, English-speaking parents who are involved in their children's schooling. Teachers would all be creative and have…