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In Rethinking Class Size, the world's leading researchers into class size effects counter the dominant view that class size has no impact on pupil outcomes. Peter Blatchford and Anthony Russell reveal the influence of class size on all relationships and interactions in the classroom. They develop a new social pedagogical model of how class size influences work, and identify policy conclusions and implications for teachers and schools. The book is an invaluable contribution to the international debate on class sizes.

Class size.

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Class size

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Class size.

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Academic achievement --- Class size --- Class size --- Research

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I use natural population variation to identify the effects of class size and composition on student achievement. I isolate the credibly random component of population variation in each grade and school district and use this component to generate instrumental variables for class size and composition. I also exploit the discontinuous changes in class size that occur when natural population variation triggers a change in the number of classes in a grade in a school. Discontinuity-based results are both consistent and precise only when applied to within-district changes in class size and population. I find that reductions in class size from a base of 15 to 30 students have no effect on student achievement. The estimates are precise enough to identify improvements in math, reading, or writing achievement of just 3/100ths of a standard deviation. I find that the presence of black students in a class, in an of itself, has no effect on achievement. I demonstrate that estimates of the effect of racial composition that rely on between-district comparisons suffer from substantial bias. Finally, I show that more female classes perform significantly better in writing in the 4th through 8th grades and in math in the 4th grade. Comparison of the effects to average male-female differences in test scores suggest that gender composition alters classroom conduct.

Class size. --- Academic achievement.