Class Size Reduction Research Articles

Effects of Free Day Secondary Education Policy on Academic Performance of Rural Public Day Secondary Schools in Kilifi County, Kenya

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) policy on academic Performance of Rural Public Day Secondary Schools (RPDSS) in Kilifi County, Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and a sample of 375 subjects was considered sufficient. Structured questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from principals, teachers, and education directors. Data on performance and enrolment were collected through document analysis. Reliability of the instruments was ascertained through test and retest method that yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.83, an indication of reliable instruments. The study found out that there was a decrease in school mean score between 2003-2007 and 2013-2017. There was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.93) between enrollment and poor performance. Further, learning resources and student finances were inadequate. The study recommends a reduction in class size, timely disbursement and increased students’ capitation.

Class Size and Learning: Has India Spent Too Much on Reducing Class Size?

This paper examines the efficacy of class-size reductions as a strategy to improve pupils' learning outcomes in India. It uses a credible identification strategy to address the endogeneity of class-size, by relating the difference in a student's achievement score across subjects to the difference in his/her class size across subjects. Pupil fixed effects estimation shows a relationship between class size and student achievement which is roughly flat or non-decreasing for a large range of class sizes from 27 to 51, with a negative effect on learning outcomes occurring only after class size increases beyond 51 pupils. The class-size effect varies by gender and by subject-stream. The fact that up to a class-size of roughly 40 in science subjects and roughly 50 in non-science subjects, there is no reduction in pupil learning as class size increases, implies that there is no learning gain from reducing class size below 40 in science and below 50 in non-science. This has important policy implications for pupil teacher ratios (PTRs) and thus for teacher appointments in India, based on considerations of cost-effectiveness. When generalised, our findings suggest that India experienced a value-subtraction from spending on reducing class-sizes, and that the US$3.6 billion it spent in 2017-18 on the salaries of 0.4 million new teachers appointed between 2010 and 2017 was wasteful spending rather than an investment in improving learning. We show that India could save US$ 19.4 billion (Rupees 1,45,000 crore in Indian currency) per annum by increasing PTR from its current 22.8 to 40, without any reduction in pupil learning.

A Rapid Review of the Reopening of Schools in this COVID-19 Pandemic? How Ready are We in Nigeria?

Reopening schools raise several ethical issues, including safety, privacy, autonomy, vulnerability. Some countries have gradually reopened their schools with explicit guidelines for safety. The safe reopening of schools demands sensitivity to community inequities. We aimed to conduct a rapid review of the strategies adopted in the reopening of schools in some countries amid the Covid-19 and highlight the lessons learned and to consider the feasibility of some of the existing Nigerian guidelines on school reopening. A rapid review technique using PubMed search was conducted using the combination of the following keywords: Covid-19, school, reopening along with a Google search using the phrase 'schools reopened in COVID-19 pandemic.' Ten articles met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Eight countries namely China, Taiwan, South Korea, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Australia, and Israel were identified. All the countries started with phased reopening and a reduction in class size. Wearing masks was mandatory in some countries. Hand hygiene and strict cleaning of high-touch surfaces were ensured. The Nigerian government's guidelines towards the reopening of schools sound good, but the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness need to be objectively assessed and contextualized across all tiers of the government and at all levels of development to avoid COVID -19 resurgence.

Under the Right Conditions, Center-Based Child Care is an Unlikely COVID-19 Threat to Staff

* Abbreviation: COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 Research on coronavirus transmission from young children to adults in child care settings is largely based on case reports with limited generalizability,1,2 impeding evidence-based assessment of infection risk to child care providers. Gilliam et al3 address these limitations in their multistate study of 57 335 child care providers reporting on exposures, risk mitigation strategies in the workplace, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection from March through May 2020. The team solicited child care providers through contact lists provided by national child care organizations and state child care workforce registries, conducted 3 rounds of surveys, and collected data on key variables including exposure to child care (provided child care during the pandemic compared to program closure) and COVID-19 infection based on a positive test result or hospitalization for COVID-19. Respondents who had exposure to child care services from March through May also reported numerous infection prevention strategies, such as class size reduction, masking, and disinfection practices. This exposure was not associated with odds of COVID-19 infection in both unmatched and propensity score matched analyses that accounted for community … Address correspondence to Heather L. Tubbs-Cooley, PhD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, 1585 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: tubbscooley.1{at}osu.edu

The Making of Social Democracy: The Economic and Electoral Consequences of Norway’s 1936 Folk School Reform

Upon assuming power for the first time in 1935, the Norwegian Labour Party delivered on its promise of a major schooling reform. The reform raised minimum instruction time in less developed rural areas and boosted the resources available to rural schools, reducing class size and increasing teacher salaries. We document that cohorts more intensively affected by the reform significantly increased their education and experienced higher labor income. Our main result is that the schooling reform also substantially increased support for the Norwegian Labour Party in subsequent elections. This additional support persisted for several decades and was pivotal in maintaining support for the social democratic coalition in Norway. These results are not driven by the direct impact of education and are not explained by higher turnout, or greater attention or resources from the Labour Party targeted towards the municipalities most affected by the reform. Rather, our evidence suggests that cohorts that benefited from the schooling reform, and their parents, rewarded the party for delivering a major reform that was beneficial to them.

The Making of Social Democracy: The Economic and Electoral Consequences of Norway's 1936 Folk School Reform

Upon assuming power for the first time in 1935, the Norwegian Labour Party delivered on its promise of a major schooling reform. The reform raised minimum instruction time in less developed rural areas and boosted the resources available to rural schools, reducing class size and increasing teacher salaries. We document that cohorts more intensively affected by the reform significantly increased their education and experienced higher labor income. Our main result is that the schooling reform also substantially increased support for the Norwegian Labour Party in subsequent elections. This additional support persisted for several decades and was pivotal in maintaining support for the social democratic coalition in Norway. These results are not driven by the direct impact of education and are not explained by higher turnout, or greater attention or resources from the Labour Party targeted towards the municipalities most affected by the reform. Rather, our evidence suggests that cohorts that benefited from the schooling reform, and their parents, rewarded the party for delivering a major reform that was beneficial to them. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Inclusão na perspectiva da educação básica pública: desafios e possibilidades

ABSTRACT: Education on perspective of inclusion, it still represents a complex challenge, especially due to the problems faced in the public system. The main objective of this study was to discuss the process of school inclusion and its relationship with the challenges of teaching practice from the perspective of public basic education in Brazil. This is a review of narrative literature, which adopts the technique of bibliographic and documentary research. It was found that school inclusion seeks education for all in the same context, this does not represent the normalization of difference, but the understanding of it as diversity. In this context, factors such as: overcrowding in classrooms; insufficient teaching materials, architectural and pedagogical accessibility; teacher unpreparedness and non-execution of public policies are still challenges in basic public education, determinants of non-compliance with the principles of inclusive education. Therefore, it becomes a way to overcome these impasses by revising the curricula and political pedagogical projects, greater financial investments to meet the demands, restructuring public policies in line with the reality of the regions, training teachers, creating tools to improve the teaching work and, above all, the change in attitudes in the recognition and appreciation of the human being. It involves society as a whole and needs specific conditions to be put into practice, among many: the valorization of education as a practice of freedom, the recognition of difference as potential and the collective effort in adapting development opportunities. KEYWORDS: School, Public policies, Teaching practice.

The effective and efficient management of school fees: Implications for the provision of quality education

The Amended National Norms and Standards for School Funding (ANNSSF) policy of 2006 introduced a funding model to address equity in public schooling. Schools are ranked into one of five quintiles of which quintile 1 represents the poorest schools and quintile 5 the most affluent. The ANNSSF policy proposes that the state provide more funding for recurrent resources to poorer schools (quintiles 1, 2 and 3) than to quintiles 4 and 5 schools. Since affluent schools receive reduced state funding, school governing bodies (SGBs) are obliged to supplement state funding if they wish to continue providing quality education and improving learner achievement. Although intensive fundraising initiatives and sponsorships are viable solutions, the declining South African economy has prompted corporates to apply austerity measures such as limiting sponsorships to schools. Thus, SGBs are compelled to charge parents school fees as a means of supplementing state subsidies. In the study reported on here, qualitative research with an interpretivist paradigm to explore how SGBs manage school fees to sustain the provision of quality education was used. The findings reveal that, if school fees are effectively and efficiently managed, SGBs can continue employing additional staff above the post provisioning norms, reduce class sizes and procure state-of-the-art resources, resulting in high learner achievement.

Class size and learner outcomes in South African schools: The role of school socioeconomic status

ABSTRACT Class size reduction is frequently argued to be a cost-effective way to improve learner outcomes. In the South African context, most studies conclude that greater class sizes are associated with poorer educational outcomes on average. However, given the country’s bimodal education system, it is plausible to believe that such a relationship may depend on where learners find themselves in the system. This paper merges newly available data from the 2017/18 School Monitoring Survey with external administrative data to investigate whether the relationship between class size and learner outcomes varies by school socioeconomic status. Although extreme class sizes are concentrated in poorer schools, class size is only negatively associated with learner outcomes in wealthier schools. This finding is robust to several robustness tests. This does not imply that class size does not matter. Rather, reductions may only be effective in the South African context once other school quality-related factors are addressed.

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF WORK ENVIRONMENT AND THEIR SENSE OF SELF-EFFICACY IN TEACHING EFL AT A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

The paper looked at environmental factors that influenced the self-efficacy in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) of a group of university teachers in Vietnam. Very little empirical research on teachers‘ self-efficacy in EFL contexts has been done and self-efficacy quantitative studies heavily outnumber qualitative studies. The present research took the form of a qualitative case study. Data collection tools included focus group discussions, individual interviews, journaling, and observations. Findings suggest that there were certain features of work context, e.g. the teaching support and teaching recognition, which may have affected what constituted sources of efficacy information and how they operated. The study proposes that institutional support with regard to providing clearer policies, giving teachers more freedom in the classroom and more opportunities to get involved in the decision-making process might help teachers overcome feelings of doubt about how competent they were in their teaching. Moreover, it would be helpful to improve teaching conditions at the university, including providing enough textbooks and reducing class size. The development of professional programs or courses at the home institution that meet the teachers‘ knowledge needs may enable them to overcome doubt about their teaching abilities and engender in them a positive sense of self-efficacy.

The role of staffing and classroom characteristics on preschool teachers' use of one-to-one intervention with children with autism.

For preschool children with autism, individual (one-to-one) behavioral interventions are among the best-tested treatments. However, they are rarely used in special education preschools. We observed formally and informally delivered one-to-one behavioral interventions use by classroom staff (n = 51) in 12 classrooms across three special education preschools for children with autism, aged 3-6 years, in a major US city. We estimated the associations between one-to-one intervention use and classroom characteristics including staff-student ratio, professional role composition, and frequency of challenging child behaviors. As a whole, the factors we examined were considerably important for both formally and informally delivered one-to-one interventions. The number of individually assigned personal care aides in the classroom was negatively associated with the use of formally delivered one-to-one intervention. Classroom challenging behavior was positively associated with use of formally delivered one-to-one interventions. Interventionist's professional roles and the number of children in the class were most important for the use of informally delivered interventions. Staff training, clarifying professional roles, setting performance expectations for personal care aides and other classroom team members, and reducing class size may represent promising implementation targets. Findings suggest caution around task-shifting policies that transfer clinical functions from more highly trained to less highly trained staff.

Education Incentive Policy for Private Education Institutions in Turkey: Examining Rationales and Outcomes (2014-2017)

There are diversified experiences among countries with respect to formulation, implementation and outcomes of voucher policies around the world. Education Incentive Policy (EIP) was introduced as a privatization mechanism in Turkey in the 2014-2015 school year to expand the share of private education. This study aims to describe and evaluate the first four-year implementation period of the EIP applied as a voucher-like scheme for students attending private education institutions. A qualitative case study design was applied to explore the goals, rationales, and the intended outcomes of the EIP through policy documents and national statistics as data sources. The results showed that Turkish voucher case used the neoliberal economic rationales which are efficient use of resources, increasing equity for disadvantaged students, and enhancing quality by class-size reduction and competition among schools. The eligibility criteria to benefit from the incentive had a targeted feature for a beneficiary profile of low-to moderate income families. On the other hand, the transformation process of Private Tutoring Institutions (PTIs) into private schools had significantly contributed to the expansion of the share of private education. Further, since the government paid less money per pupil, opportunities aroused to increase the education quality in public education. The EIP needs to be examined how the policy consequences have affected quality and investments rising in public schools.

Class Size, Cognitive Abilities, Bullying, and Violent Behavior: Evidence from West Bank Schools

This study uses rich administrative and survey data to investigate the effects of class size on students' cognitive tests as well as bullying and violent behavior. I use the maximum class size rule to create a regression discontinuity (RD) relation between cohort enrollment size and class size in the public and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school system in the West Bank. In addition, I provide evidence that there is no violation of the RD assumptions resulting from discontinuities in the relationship between enrollment and students' household background at cutoff points induced by a maximum class size rule. The main findings suggest that class size has no direct impact on students' cognitive skills except for those in grade six. However, class size reduction improves the quality of life for children by mitigating the bullying and violent behavior among pupils that may negatively affect their achievements. Finally, I point to peer relations and mental health problems as a potential mechanism through which class size affects children's self-reported bullying-victim instances and violent behavior.

Effectiveness of Free Senior High School Double Track Policy System and Its Impact on Student Performance in the Nkoranza North and South District, Ghana

Ghana educational system has over the years gone through various reforms through the introduction of varied policies and programs aimed at bringing quality and affordable education to the doorstep of its citizens. Recently introduced at the secondary level is the free senior high school policy which seeks to improve both enrollment and performance of students. The increase in enrollment numbers resulted in the adoption of the double track system to deal with the problem of inadequate infrastructure that most of these second cycle institutions are grabbling with. This study, therefore, documents the impact of the free senior high school policy in its current practicein Ghana; precisely, in the Nkoranza North and South Districts. Through both structured and semi-structured interviews, it was observed that the policy has resulted in increased enrollment of students, reduced class sizes, improved contact hours between students and teachers and more holidays for enough rest. However, the double track system was observed to besaddled with numerous challenges. They included inadequate stakeholder consultation, inadequate infrastructure, untimely disbursement of funds, poor meals and increased financial burden on parents. It is against this backdrop that the study recommends that government should established sustainable funding sources, undertake massive infrastructure expansion, broader stakeholder consultation on the policy sustainability and political commitment in policy implementation.

Developing the usage index for teaching with technology: A case study for Motheo district, South Africa

Virtual reality has taken the world by storm over the past decade where learners are allowed to gain experiences that are not possible with ordinary teaching methods. The interactive technological devices such as GeoGebra have made Euclidean geometry easy to understand by learners. The current study aimed to investigate the use of technology in the teaching of Grade 12 Euclidean geometry. This study used a four-dimensional model for teaching with technology in the investigation. All responses were averaged and normalised to produce an index for the measurement of the effective technology use in teaching of Euclidean geometry in Grade 12. The learning style of students contributes significantly to the use of technology in classes, particularly the audio-visual learning style. Bloemfontein showed a high number of learners ready to be taught through technology. However, this is in opposition to the teachers in terms of their age groups and enthusiasm to use technology. In Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu areas that were previously resource-disadvantaged, the current government has ensured that technological teaching resources are available where unfortunately their usage is not satisfactory, ranging from ‘maybe used’ to ‘less use of technology’ in teaching of Euclidean geometry in classroom. The authorities are therefore advised to hold technology workshops for senior teachers, reduce class sizes and tighten security in schools to avoid connecting and disconnecting of technological devices from one classroom to another to avoid wastage of teaching time.

Estimation and Inference for Linear Models with Two-Way Fixed Effects and Sparsely Matched Data

Models with multiway fixed effects are frequently used to address selection on unobservables. The data used for estimating these models often contain few observations per value of either indexing variable (sparsely matched data). I show that this sparsity has important implications for inference and propose an asymptotically valid inference method based on subsetting. Sparsity also has important implications for point estimation when covariates or instrumental variables are sequentially exogenous (e.g., dynamic models), and I propose a new estimator for these models. Finally, I illustrate these methods by providing estimates of the effect of class size reductions on student achievement.

O trabalho docente em grupos empresariais de ensino superior e o mercado de ações na bolsa de valores: Um estudo a partir dos conflitos

O presente artigo sumariza a identificação dos conflitos envolvendo o trabalho docente nos grupos educacionais de capital aberto, com ações na bolsa de valores [B]³ e que atuam na educação superior brasileira, especialmente: Ânima, Estácio, Kroton e Ser Educacional. A construção do objeto partiu da sistematização da empiria, por meio de metodologia específica para análise de conflitos sociais. A pesquisa possibilitou coligir conflitos existentes nessas organizações de ensino e que envolvem docentes e estudantes. O levantamento foi realizado a partir de reportagens que mencionavam a ocorrência de conflitos nas organizações estudadas (2009-2018). No total foram localizadas 102 reportagens que relatavam 56 conflitos. A partir desse levantamento, foi possível identificar que os docentes atuantes nesses grupos vivenciam reformas pedagógicas que favorecem disciplinas online, superlotação nas salas de aula e demissões. Para a caracterização dos grupos educacionais a pesquisa utilizou as informações do Censo da Educação Superior, o portal eletrônico da bolsa de valores, os sites dos grupos empresariais selecionados, revistas e jornais especializados. A investigação conclui que a análise dos conflitos permite compreender mudanças advindas do controle financeiro das organizações de ensino.

Strategic Grade Retention

Most school systems grant teachers and school principals considerable discretion in grade retention decisions. This paper argues that schools can exploit this discretion by selectively retaining students to reduce class size which potentially has important implications for public spending on education and affected students. To this end, I build a model in which class size is subject to a class size cap, with teachers and school principals determining the share of students to be retained. This leads to a set of empirical predictions that can be tested with minimal data requirements. Testing these predictions using administrative data for German primary schools yields strong evidence of schools strategically using grade retention to reduce class size.

Do Class Size Reductions Protect Students from Infectious Disease? Lessons for Covid-19 Policy from Flu Epidemic in Tokyo Metropolitan Area

We evaluate the causal effect of class size (i.e., number of students in a classroom) on incidence of class closure due to flu epidemic in 2015, 2016, and 2017, applying an instrumental variable method with the Maimonides rule to administrative data of public primary and middle school students in one of the largest municipalities within the City of Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Given the classroom area of 63m2 set by regulation in Japan, class size reduction improves social distancing among students in a classroom.We find that class size reduction is effective to reduce class closure due to flu: one unit reduction of class size decreases class closure by about 5%; and forming small classes with 27 students at most, satisfying the social distancing of 1.5 m recommended to prevent droplet infection including influenza and COVID-19, reduces class closure by about 90%. In addition, we find that the older are students, the larger are the effects of class size reduction. Our findings provide supportive evidence for the effectiveness of social distancing policy in primary and middle schools to protect students from droplet infectious disease including COVID-19.

Lead Exposure Reduces Academic Performance: Intensity, Duration, and Nutrition Matter

We leverage a natural experiment, where a large national automotive racing organization switched from leaded to unleaded fuel, to study how ambient lead exposure and nutrition impact learning in elementary school. This provides quasi-experimental evidence linking measured quantities of lead emissions to decreased test scores, information essential for policies addressing ambient lead and emission sources. We find increased levels and duration of exposure to lead negatively affect academic performance, shift the entire academic performance distribution, and negatively impact both younger and older children. Exposure to 10 additional kilograms of lead emissions from lead-fuel races reduces standardized test scores by 0.06 standard deviations, where the average race emitted more than 10 kilograms of lead — a quantity similar to the annual emissions of an airport or a median lead-emitting industrial facility in the United States. This corresponds to an average income reduction of $2,600--$4,000 per treated student in present value terms, an effect size similar to improving teacher value added by one-sixth of a standard deviation, reducing class size by 3 students, or increasing school spending per pupil by $500. The marginal impacts of lead are larger in impoverished, non-white counties, and among students with greater duration of exposure, even after controlling for the total quantity of exposure. Factors correlated with better nutrition — most notably consumption of calcium-rich foods like milk — are associated with smaller negative effects of lead exposure. These results suggest that improved child nutrition can help combat the negative effects of lead, addressing several prominent social issues including racial test gaps, human capital formation across income groups, and disparities in regional environmental justice. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.