tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38545607.post3917385972149406428..comments2024-03-09T10:26:48.789+00:00Comments on economics, psychology, policy: Education cuts, the National Plan and class sizesEmma Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11466193733741012673noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38545607.post-61780516038417091232010-12-01T14:41:22.093+00:002010-12-01T14:41:22.093+00:00For what it's worth (and it's probably wor...For what it's worth (and it's probably worth something given it's the position of the man running one of the world's biggest philanthropy initiatives), Bill Gates has urged "an end to efforts to reduce class sizes. Instead, he suggests rewarding the most effective teachers with higher pay for taking on larger classes or teaching in needy schools." <br /><br />The quote is from a recent article in the New York Times:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/us/19gates.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=teachers&st=cse" rel="nofollow">Gates Urges School Budget Overhauls</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38545607.post-34906246195837347602010-11-30T14:21:46.621+00:002010-11-30T14:21:46.621+00:00Ah you need to come to my class today to get the a...Ah you need to come to my class today to get the answer! But since... So most of the literature deals with between-school sorting by fixed effects like you say so its generally about within-school, certainly the papers I cited. The teacher selection could well play a part but I think thats a bit of a black hole in the literature:we don't measure it so we don't model it. <br />The measures that are available are things like experience, qualifications. Fair enough, but think of your good and bad teachers: is that what made the difference? <br />Hanushek and others have been emphasizing that its teacher quality that matters.Kevin Dennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17891633553910348880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38545607.post-9511974874613929772010-11-30T09:53:13.816+00:002010-11-30T09:53:13.816+00:00Good post, Kevin, even though vested interests wil...Good post, Kevin, even though vested interests will persist in looking for definitive evidence one way or the other in what is a complex issue. One thing that strikes me is that there is a lot of within-school variation in class sizes, depending upon the size of the cohort intake and also attrition as kids leave the school for whatever reason. Has this variation ever been exploited to invesutigate the effect of class size, given that you would have control over school fixed effects? <br />Another point that strikes me (arising from my observations as a Parent Association rep) is that if a school does lose teaching resources and faces an increase in class size, the increase does not fall uniformly on all classes. A good school principal may well be able to offset the effects of larger class sizes simply by assigning her best or better teachers to those classes. And as you say, teacher quality is likely to have a far greater impact upon student outcomes than class size.David Maddennoreply@blogger.com