‘Days of small K-3 classes likely over,” announced a recent Reporter headline atop a news article quoting education officials who predict that California’s attempt to cap at 20 the number of students in the primary grades would not be resumed.
One can only hope that these reports of class size reduction’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, because it’s hard to believe that cramming 30 or more 5-, 6- or 7-year-olds into a single classroom is an effective way to teach.
California launched class-size reduction in 1996 but, because it didn’t immediately cure every ill of public education, its effectiveness has been routinely called into question.