At what point are school class sizes too big?

[RandomAnthony]

At what point are classes too big in elementary/middle/high school? Is the teacher or class size a bigger factor...or are both equally important?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/edu...

[Sally, la reina]

I would say that they became too big right around 1975.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Others, including Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, have argued that the impact of small classes on achievement has been exaggerated and that giving students a skillful teacher is more cost-effective.

But as class sizes grow, even skillful teachers are going to burn out faster. It's that many more tests to grade, or papers to read. A skillful teacher teaching 20 students is not the equivalent of a skillful teacher teaching 40 students, unless we're talking straight lecture classes.

In any type of class where discussion is important, and/or individual attention to students, a class size beyond 25 students is too large.

Mr. Duncan said he would prefer to put his own school-age children in a classroom with 28 students led by a “fantastic teacher” than in one with 23 and a “mediocre” teacher.

Kind of a dumb statement. Of course we'd prefer a fantastic teacher to a mediocre teacher, and an increase of 5 students isn't really the same as an increase of 15-20 students, is it.

[RandomAnthony]

Yes, I hear you, LG. I think one of the issues to which Duncan is pointing is connected to what you're saying in your last sentence. Some school districts try, for example, to go from 24 to 22 students per class...that's probably not enough of a difference to make a significant gain in student achievement, but it's better than nothing, I guess. Whether or not a district should, say, reduce class sizes from 25 to 23 or use the money in some other ways is interesting.

I have students who teach at the high school level with as many as forty students per class. That's fucking sad and stupid.