Pamelia Valentine: Experimenting with Class Size

I read an interesting article about home-schooled students and their great success rate. They learn faster and according to the 2005 article by Shaunti Feldhahn, a syndicated columnist for the Seattle Times, they may have some distinct advantages over public educated students

“In 1998, a Home School Legal Defense Association's study of 20,760 home-school students found that: ‘In every subject and at every grade level (on standardized tests), home-school students scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts.’ Younger home-schoolers performed one grade level higher than their public and private school counterparts, and by eighth grade, ‘the average home-school student performs four grade levels above the national average’,” wrote Feldhahn.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised. I thought—of course—that makes perfect sense. Limit the class size to one or two children and give them a competent adult who cares about them more than anyone else in the whole world and you should have a recipe for phenomenal success rates.

In our school we meet the students (30 at a time—5 times a day—that’s 150 individuals) and work hard on developing a relationship of trust with them. We care about them and we pour our hearts and souls into imparting as much knowledge as we can in 50 minutes a day. It takes weeks and sometimes months to discover what “flips each students switch” and, despite my best efforts, there are some that I never do figure out—obviously their home-school teachers have an advantage in getting to know their students.

In junior high, I have one semester with some students and sometimes I get two semesters. Class size is a hot topic among teachers and most educational professionals have agreed that limiting class sizes (especially in the elementary schools) is a good idea. I believe that we do need to limit class sizes in order to educate students and while I know that it is not possible to match the one or two students per teacher that home schooled students have, it would be interesting to cut the classes down by one third.

Is it feasible? What if public schools could limit class sizes to 20 all the way through 12^th grade? Yes, we’d have to hire more teachers and yes, we might have to increase the size of the building. And yes, it would cost more. If education really is the top priority we shouldn’t even flinch at the cost.

Give a teacher 10 fewer students each class period—50 fewer each day. It certainly would make an interesting study. I’m betting that the results­—just like the home-school statistics—would be no surprise to anyone.

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

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Creativity Really Does Matter