On 27 Feb 2004 20:30:09 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , Fitch R. Williams
says...

If you want to reduce class size, you need more teachers. Any attempt
to improve education that doesn't reduce class size is a joke.

I think the anti-public school folks will drag out the
'private schools do great, with large class sizes' theory.
This may be true, but the ability to cherry pick the
starting material for the process may have *something*
to do with it. Also the ability to jettison unruly
students.

I attended a private school, and they provided me with an outstanding
education. But they did it with small classes, and lots of money. The
whole school, with a couple of years of pre-kindergarten up through
8th grade had about 200 kids at most, and several of them had family
names you'd recognize.

There have been a number of studies showing that, at least in the
primary grades, kids do much better with smaller class sizes, up to
about 16 in a class. Above that, it doesn't seem to make much
difference how big the class is.

Another significant difference that has been reported is the degree of
autonomy the school has, with more autonomy corresponding strongly to
better education. A private school typically has a lot of autonomy. A
public school has to follow policies set by district and state, and,
if President Bush has his way, Federal government as well. That's the
opposite of autonomy, and counter to the President's _stated_ aims
with respect to public education. I won't comment on his actual aims.

Al Moore