One of the new research says that Students who were in a
small class in grades 4 to 6 had better school achievement and higher wages as
adults than those who were in large classes. This is shown in research done at
IFAU, the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy, in
Sweden. Smaller classes are also found to be profitable to society.
Whether a large or small class size plays any role in
student learning is heatedly debated. Previous (primarily American) research
has shown that small classes improve school outcomes in the short term;
students learn more in school. But it has remained unclear whether these
effects make a difference in working life.
The authors of the report studied cognitive and
non-cognitive skills in 10 percent of cohorts born in 1967, 1972, 1977 and
1982, nearly 31 000 students. Questionnaires in 6th grade provided the
students' own perceptions of their endurance, self-confidence, and
expectations. These were combined with test results in 6th and 9th grade,
educational attainment, and their income as adults (27-42 years of age).
The report shows that students from small classes in
grade 4 to 6 consistently have better results than students from large classes.
Those in small classes had better cognitive and non-cognitive skills, had
better scores on standardized national tests in grades 6 and 9, perceived
themselves as having more self-confidence and greater endurance. The
differences in school outcomes persisted throughout the rest of their
compulsory schooling. The probability of going on to higher education was also
greater for students in small classes. Those who were in small classes also
earned more money as adults. A reduction in class size of five students
entailed more than 3 percent higher wages.
"These higher wages in adulthood indicate that
students from small classes are more productive," says Björn Öckert, an economist
and one of the three researchers behind the report. "The effects on
earning power are sufficiently large for the surplus to outweigh the direct
costs of having smaller classes. This means that society recoups the costs of
small classes. School resources play a role not only for student achievement,
which previous research has shown, but also for how things turn out later in
life."
Prior to 1991 in Sweden there were rules for the maximum
number of students in a class. In grades 4 to 6 the number of students in a
class could not exceed 30. If there were 31 students in a school grade, they
had to be divided into two classes. The rules entailed substantial differences
in class sizes for schools with nearly identical number of students, which is
what the researchers used to measure the impact of class size.
IFAU Working paper 2012:5 Long-term effects of class size
was written by Björn Öckert, IFAU, Peter Fredriksson Stockholm University, and
Hessel Oosterbeek, University of Amsterdam.
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