Class size and student achievement

The typical story is that a reduction in class size, especially to the magic number of about 15 in seminar-style courses, can play a significant role in student achievement. But, as with the economy, the “average” increase that results hides great variability in who actually benefits. Turns out, students who are typically low achievers in class do derive some benefit from smaller classes and more direct attention from instructors, but it’s the already high achievers who more often see the big increases in performance. I guess that supports our emphasis on small classes and more engaged learning approaches in Honors courses, but what do these results tell us for how we should address the other end of the ACT scale? I’d always assumed that a similar approach would apply in this context as well, but this evidence would seem to call some of that philosophy into question.

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i21/21a03001.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en