Class Size and School Performance: An Analysis of Elementary and Middle Schools
1411
869
Abstract
The class size debate is still ongoing among researchers, even though smaller class sizes are widely supported by parents, teachers, and the public. To contribute to this discussion, data was taken from the North Carolina (NC) School Report Cards (SRC) datasets and used to address two questions: First, is there a relationship between an elementary school’s performance score and average class size? Second, is there a relationship between a middle school’s performance score and average class size? Using the results from a linear regression and ordered logit, we find that average class size significantly predicts both NC elementary and middle school performance. However, the estimates suggest that higher average class size is negatively related to elementary school performance, but positively related to middle school performance. These results suggest that the impact of class size on student and school performance may depend on the grade levels in question, for example, elementary or middle school. We conclude that policymakers should act carefully when manipulating class sizes, since the effect may depend on the grade levels.
Keywords
Class size, North Carolina, elementary school, middle school, school performance
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Etim, J. S., Etim, A. S., & Blizard, Z. D. (2020). Class size and school performance: An analysis of elementary and middle schools. International Journal on Studies in Education (IJonSE), 2(2), 66-77.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46328/ijonse.13
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2021 International Journal on Studies in Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Abstracting/Indexing
International Journal on Studies in Education (IJonSE) - ISSN: 2690-7909
affiliated with
International Society for Technology, Education and Science (ISTES)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.