Do Smaller Classes Make a Difference? No Doubt About It

California already has the most-crowded public school classrooms in the nation, and the alarming state budget outlook for the coming year means that things can only get worse.

But do a few more students in the back of a room really make a difference? I’ve been participating in an experiment this semester to find out.

My sophomore English class has been reduced from about 35 students to 20, and the differences are remarkable.

Class size is particularly important for English classes, because that’s where students learn one of the most important skills taught in school: writing.

Unfortunately, writing takes a lot of time and one-on-one attention to teach and to learn, and a teacher’s quality time is a scarce commodity in a big class.

But it’s amazing how quickly students in a class of 20 improve their writing. For one thing, students get more chances to polish their skills because the stack of papers takes me less time to grade--so I’m able to assign more of them.

While last semester’s class of 35 wrote two or three formal papers a week, this smaller class writes four or five--that means 25 to 30 more chances to improve by semester’s end.

The students also get more of my help in writing papers. One class period is just about enough time to look over and discuss 20 papers. That means I can get to less than two-thirds of an average-size class, or an entire small class. In the big class, students basically have to take turns missing out on my attention.

And I never thought I’d say this, but with a smaller class, grading papers is almost a pleasure. I can take more time with each one, and write more thorough and helpful comments.

There’s also a big change in what the students do with the comments on their papers. Ideally, students would use the suggestions to rewrite their papers. This is possible only once in a while when the class totals 35, but in my group of 20, the students have rewritten almost every paper so far.

They’ve also had more time to read and talk about each other’s writing, a process that helps develop editing skills.

Because smaller classes are also more manageable, teachers can try a wider range of activities.

Students love discussions, for example, but these are tough in a large class. Some kids will break off into smaller groups and argue among themselves; there’s not enough time for everyone to speak; there’s always a heckler or two. Truth is, a lot of time is wasted on crowd control.

In my smaller class, discussions are civil and mature. With fewer students, there are no “breakaway” clumps; hecklers are easily spotted, and everyone has time to express views and ask questions.

Group work is easier, too, and most students love it. Because groups are smaller, every student has to do more work. And they know I can hear everything that’s said in a small class, so they don’t dare start talking about the Lakers or weekend plans.

And when the groups are few, I can help them all, instead of having to rush by the last couple at the end of the period.

I also think speaking skills are just as important as writing, but it’s nearly impossible to deal with this in a big class. It takes three or four days for a class of 35 to make oral presentations, and students tend to get restless once their own moment in the spotlight is over.

My sophomores, in contrast, can wrap up a round of oral presentations in a day or two. That means I can do it more often.

Finally, I can’t say enough about the student-teacher relationship in a class of 20.

Although I truly like and get along with just about all my students, I enjoy a special esprit de corps with my sophomores. Because there are so few, I’m able to talk to every student nearly every day, so I know each one pretty well.

Any educator will tell you that this relationship, more than anything else, makes for good attendance and good behavior.

Maybe that’s why this is the only class in which I’ve never had to discipline a student.

For my part, this experiment has proven what teachers have known all along: Fewer students per class equals more learning.

So, Mr. Education President, please put smaller classes at the top of your list of reforms.