Page 2919 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 August 2008
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randomised experiment was conducted in Tennessee starting in the mid-1980s. The STAR project looked at the effect of smaller classes and continued until very recently to monitor student outcomes for years after their passage through the primary school system.
This study was the first major randomised experiment with smaller class sizes and involved more than 11,600 students. The study randomly assigned students between small and regular class sizes. It also randomly assigned teachers. The findings of that research are very compelling. The study found that third grade students in small classes were up to 4.7 months ahead of their peers and that several years after the end of the experiment they were up to 14 months ahead of their peers.
This research has found that the greatest effects were achieved when smaller classes commenced in the earliest years of schooling and, importantly, when they were extended across several years of schooling. My policy acts on this evidence that shows that smaller classes are most effective when sustained across several years of schooling. Studies conducted on the participants in the STAR experiment have shown an 18 per cent difference in high school graduation rates between students who have been in smaller classes during primary school than those in larger classes. There are many other benefits which other studies have identified. Research from Britain has found that teachers in smaller classes use an extra six per cent of their classroom to teach and make 48 per cent more teacher-student interactions.
The New South Wales government commissioned Professor Bob Meyenn to study the effectiveness of class size reductions in New South Wales primary schools. Over the course of three studies he has found that student behavioural problems and learning difficulties are identified earlier and more easily corrected while there is increased morale and enthusiasm among teachers in small classes. Teachers found they were able to spend more time with individual students and use different and more effective teaching methods.
There have been critics of the STAR report. We believe the research is very solidly in favour of smaller classes. One of the dissenting critics is Professor Eric Hanushek. His principal argument is that across-the-board large reductions in class size are a highly expensive means of achieving small gains and outcomes and that other policies should be considered, namely, a focus on better teaching quality. It would seem Minister Barr has read Professor Hanushek’s work exclusively from front to back at the expense of broader and more credible research. Ironically, the Hanushek writing is mainly used by right-wing think-tanks that want to argue against extra investment in education altogether.
The old work of Hanushek had several notorious methodological flaws. For one thing, he attempted to reinterpret other studies. He does not conduct fresh research of his own. Hanushek places a disproportionate amount of weight on studies that are based on smaller samples and is very selective in avoiding studies that show significant positive results.
Findings from the largest longitudinal study of class size, project STAR, were excluded from Hanushek’s review while studies of a much smaller magnitude were included and given very high weighting. The outcome variable in some of the models
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