"Dan Caster" wrote in message
m...
I went to ERIC and did not find anything about class size and
education.

It took me less than five seconds to find the first one: ERIC Digest 136,
April 2000, "Capitalizing On Small Class Size." The descriptors you want to
look for are "Class Size" and "Teacher Student Ratio."

What you find in ERIC is summaries, a few papers, and extensive
bibliographies. They're a clearing house, not a think-tank, so you have to
use their bibliographies and links to see most of the actual writing. I've
included a bibliography from the article above at the end of this post.

The battle is not about the benefits of class size, but about the relative
cost benefits of reducing class size versus alternatives. Here's a
concluding remark from the ECS. They have a whole site developed to
class-size arguments and issues,
http://www.ecs.org/html/issue.asp?issueid=24:

"Clearly, reducing class size is a significant means of improving student
achievement but high academic standards, a challenging curriculum, safe and
orderly classrooms, and qualified teachers are no less significant in the
arsenal of solid, research-proven reforms. When smaller class size is
pursued in conjunction with such reforms, the combined impact on student
achievement is far greater than any strategy by itself."

The U.S. Dept. of Education also has a site and links about class-size
reduction, which includes summaries and descriptions of the legislation:

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/ClassSize/guidance.html


Here's a sample reading list from that ERIC article:

Achilles, Charles M. Let's Put Kids First, Finally: Getting Class Size
Right. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 1999. 219 pages. ED 432 057.

Achilles, C.M.; Karen Kiser-Kling; Ann Aust; and Jean Owen. "A Study of
Reduced Class Size in Primary Grades of a Fully Chapter 1-Eligible School,
Success Starts Small." San Francisco: American Educational Research
Association, 1995.

Arfstrom, Kari. "Small Districts Overlooked by Class Size Initiative." The
School Adminstrator (February 2000): 55.

Bain, H. P., and C. M. Achilles. "Interesting Developments on Class Size."
Phi Delta Kappan 67 (May 1996): 662-65.

Bohrnstedt, George W., and Brian Stecher, Eds. Class Size Reduction in
California: Early Evaluation Findings, 1996-1998. Palo Alto, California: CSR
Research Consortium, 1999. 157 pages.

Bradley, Ann. "Quality Crisis Seen in California Teaching Ranks." Education
Week XIX, 15 (December 8, 1999): 1, 9.

Egelson, Paula; Patrick Harman; and C.M. Achilles. "Does Class Size Make a
Difference?" Greensboro, NC: South Eastern Regional Vision for Education,
1996.

Joint Legislative Audit Committee. ÒCalifornia's Public Schools: A Needs
Assessment. Sacramento, California: Author, 1999.

McRobbie, Joan. ÒSmaller Classes Aim to Launch Early Literacy. Focus
Magazine. (WestEd). Fall 1996. ED 423 604.

McRobbie, Joan; Jeremy D. Finn; and Patrick Harman. ÒClass Size Reduction:
Lessons Learned from Experience. Policy Brief No. 23. (WestEd). August 1998.
(http://www.wested.org/policy/hot_top/csr/ht_hm_csr.htm)


So I googled and on the first page of sites found articles
that said that class size was important in the primary grades to age
eight. And articles that said that class size alone did not make a
difference, the difference only occurred if the teachers changed their
method of instruction. And what I said was that changing the method
of instruction was important.

So I still disagree with you. The studies are not overwhelming.

You need a broader selection of studies. Selecting on the basis of Google
hits can be misleading. The studies as a whole are, as I said, overwhelming.

Ed Huntress