A reader writes:
Regarding your post from Dana Goldstein, I would venture to say that using average class size is not a good statistic to determine what the typical teacher encounters. Rather, median class size should be the appropriate metric. Given the legal requirement that certain students receive IEPs (Individual Educational Program), there is a natural requirement to hire more teachers for specialty classes such as special ed and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). As a result, you have more teachers relative to the growth of the student population, but you still have many classrooms with 30 or more students. For classrooms where special help is needed, you can have fewer than 10 students. Thus, average class size becomes skewed.
Another:
Regarding?class?size in Korea and Japan: yes, they get better results on standardized testing and they have larger?class?sizes than the US, but I would not read too much into that. Most kids in Korea and Japan get a LOT of additional?classes?outside of school in private institutes, with parents pushing them incredibly hard. I've never heard anyone from that system speak well of it (including my wife, who managed to survive a Korean high school and made it into one of Korea's best universities). There's a reason a huge chunk of Korea flees for their high school years, desperate for just about any other system.
Another adds, "I've worked in Japanese schools, and they make their?classes?big on purpose to encourage interaction with as diverse a variety of peers as possible." Readers are also discussing the subject on our Facebook page:
My kids (now in their early 20s) had class sizes of no more than 25 until fourth grade, when it hit 35. That was terrible! I volunteered once a week in their classrooms and was active with PTA, so I was at the school a lot. A few of the 4th-8th grade teachers could handle 32+ kids, but most could not. I definitely feel ALL the kids were short-changed - those who needed extra time / attention couldn't get it, those who needed to advance more quickly were bored, and those who were dealing with personal problems (parent divorce, etc.) could not be given the support they needed. Most excellent private schools limit class sizes to under 20.
I will also add that I teach university courses, and in the last few years my cap sizes have gone from 30 to 35 to as many as EIGHTY - in 400-level classes. This means NO writing assignments and nearly all multiple choice questions on tests. I find this to be appalling. (I teach at a large state university.) The same is true for elementary and high-school teachers - the larger the class, the less demanding the assignments have to be (and fewer of them). That is not education.
Source: http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/10/how-important-is-class-size-ctd.html
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