Size of Classes and School Progress
- Author:
Oliver r. Coknman, Ph.D.,
Associate Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia. In discussions of the conditions affecting tlie progress of children in school it is generally assumed that classes beyond a certain size are a serious menace to the pupils’ success. For example, it is stated by Dutton and Snedden, “In the Elementary Schools of the United States it has come to be felt that if the number of children assigned to a teacher is in excess of 40 the work must suffer.”1 It has been taken for granted, therefore, that large classes are to be counted among the important causes of retardation and, conversely, that much better results are secured with classes small in size. Such assumptions as these are quite natural. Indeed, it seems almost self-evident that a teacher would do better work with a class of 30 than with one of 40, and that the adverse conditions to be met with in a class of 50 or more pupils must surely be reflected in a marked deterioration in results, if not in complete failure. This view of the relation of the size of the class to the efficiency of the teaching is held so strongly, that the demand for smaller classes is practically universal, and many school superintendents are concentrating their attention upon the problem of reducing the size of their classes from, say, 40 to 50 pupils per teacher to classes ranging from 30 to 40. But the number of pupils per teacher can be reduced only by employing more teachers, so that the question becomes an important one from the economic point of view. For this reason, and also for the pedagogical interest inherent in the problem, the influence of the size of class upon the progress of the pupils is worthy of careful inestigation.
A method by which such investigation may be made is to examine the relation of the size of the class to promotion percentages, the latter constituting a convenient measure of rate of progress. This method was employed with the promotion records for January, 1909, of the schools of District No. 6, Philadelphia. The classes were arranged according to size in three groups: “under 40,” “40 to 49,” and “50 or over” and the promotion 1Dutton, S. T? and Snedden, D. S., Administration of Public Education in the United States, N. Y., Maemillan, 1908, p. 341.
percentages determined for each group. The results are given in table I, for each grade separately, for grammar grades (5th to 8th) and for primary grades (1st to 4th) taken together, and for the totals of all the groups. The last line of this table shows that TABLE I. Promotion Percentages, January, 1909. Classes Grouped by Size. Under 40. Grade. No. of Classes. 8 1 9 7 1 10 6 9 5 11 4 i 8 3 11 2 13 1 12 Gram. 39 Prim’y 44 Total 83 Av. No. Pupils. 34 36 30 36 38 36 36 Promoted. 89.2 84.9 86.4 83.4 81.2 87.9 79.4 36 I 76.0 36 I 85.8 36 80.9 36 83.2 40 to 49. No. of Classes. n 19 Av. No. Pupils. 44 45 45 25 i 45 33^ 28 32? 22 60 45 45 44 46 45 116 45 176 45 Promoted. 90.0 91.9 84.1 87.3 84.2 84.6 85.1 76.4 87.3 83.0 84.5 50 or Over. No. of ! Av. No. Classes. 1 Pupils. 0 (T~ 4 51 4 | 52 5 ! 54 4 | 52 12 53 9 53 23 54 13 53 48 ! 53 61 53 Promoted. .0 92.1 89.4 87.0 84.6 80.8 74.2 76.7 89.3 77.9 80.3
there were 83 of the “under 40” classes with an average membership of 36 and that 83.2 per cent of the pupils in these classes were promoted; that the “40 to 49” group consisted of 176 classes with an average membership of 45 and a promotion record of 84.5 per cent; and that 61 classes with an average membership of 53 had a promotion record of 80.3 per cent. The highest promotion record, Primary Gfrades G rammar grades 7ofo/ Ibfa/ fill J_ 3_ ?6.1. Primary Grammar grades Chart I. Showing promotion percentages of classes. Small classes are on the left, large classes on tlie right, of the medium-sized (shaded) classes.
*There were no classes of the “50 or over” group in the eighth grade. 208 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC TABLE II. Rating of Pupils. February, 1909. PER CENT “SATISFACTORY” IN SCHOOL WORK. Classes Grouped by Size. Grade. Under 40. 40 to 49. 50 or Over. 8 61 59 66 7 67 60 72 6 55 61 64 5 57 68 61 4 70 69 68 3 72 69 72 2 60 69 75 1 73 76 56 Grammar 59 61 65 Primary 71 69 70 Total 64 69 67 therefore, was made by the classes of medium size and the record of the group of “50 or over” was but 2.9 per cent below that of the “under 40” group. Similar comparisons may be made for each grade separately or for the grammar grades*or primary grades taken together. Some of the facts of table I are given in chart I in order to facilitate such comparisons. Examination of this chart discloses that in the 1st, 4th, 6th and 7 th grades and in the grammar grades as a whole the best promotion records were made by the largest (50 or more) classes; that in the 2d, 5th, and 8th grades, in the primary grades as a whole and in all the grades taken together, the medium-sized classes had the best promotion records; and that in only one grade, the 3d, did the smallest classes have the best record. The chart also shows that for the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 8th grades and for the grammar grades taken together Primary Grades Grammar Grades Ibra/ Total /J// L 2z~ ?i ^ Jl ^ 7- 8 Primary Grammar Grac/es nn Chart II. Showing percentages of pupils rated as making satisfactory progress in small, medium sized, and large classes respectively. Chart II. Showing percentages of pupils rated as making satisfactory progress in small, medium sized, and large classes respectively. CLASSES AND SCHOOL PROGRESS 209 TABLE III. Rating of Pupils, February, 1909. PER CENT “SATISFACTORY” IN CONDUCT. Classes Grouped l)y Size. Grade. Under 40. 40 to 49. 50 or Over. 8 80 85 96 7 76 85 80 6 66 84 83 5 78 80 82 4 89 78 89 3 88 78 90 2 89 80 86 1 …….. 90 85 87 Grammar 77 85 87 Primary 89 79 90 Total …. 84 79 90 the promotion percentages for small, medium, and large size classes increase in the order given, or, as it may otherwise be expressed, the larger the class the better the record. In general, it may be said (a) that careful scrutiny, of the facts of table I or their graphic representation, chart I, fails to reveal any advantage in small classes over classes of medium size as regards promotion percentages; (6) that the classes of medium size make, on the whole, the best showing; (c) that the large classes do not, on the whole, fall much below the other groups; (d) that in the grammar grades, the larger the class the better the promotion record.
Primary Grades Grammar Grac/es 7bfa/ Total AH 1 Z 3 4- 5 & 2 8. Enmm1 Grammar Grades Chart III. Showing percentages of pupils rated as satisfactory in conduct in small, medium sized, and large classes respectively. To secure additional data upon the relation of size of class to rate of progress, the monthly report cards (for February, 1909) upon which the teacher records her rating of the pupil’s conduct or deportment and his progress in school-work were utilized. The percentage of the pupils of a class rated as making satisfactory progress was determined and the classes were then arranged in groups according to size. The results are given in table II and displayed graphically in chart II.
Examination of this chart shows that in the 2d, 6th and 8th grades, and in the grammar grades taken together, the largest classes make the best showing; that in the 1st and 5th grades and in the total for all grades the medium sized classes have the best record; and that in the 4th and 7th grades and in the primary grades taken together the smallest classes have the highest ratings. On the whole, the pupils of the medium size classes have the best ratings and those of the smallest classes the poorest, while again, in the case of the grammar grades, the larger the class the better the rating.
Discussion of these results in a meeting of school principals gave rise to the suggestion that the comparatively poor records of the smaller classes might be compensated for by a “moral gain” which could not readily be measured. In order to attempt some measurement of the “moral gain,” the monthly report ratings for “conduct” were also tabulated. The results are c;iven in table III and in chart III. The chart shows clearly that the percentage of pupils rated as satisfactory in conduct is greatest in the largest classes, whether we group the classes by primary grades, by grammar grades or consider the entire number of classes without regard to grade; and again in the grammar grades, the larger the class the better the result. The pupils of the classes of medium size are not rated so high in conduct as those of the small and of the large classes.
A review of charts I, II and III seems to indicate (a) that size of class is not a very important factor in the determination of rate of progress or retardation of the pupils of the class, (b) that medium size classes (40 to 49 pupils) make somewhat the best showing, (c) that large classes (50 or more pupils) make a poorer showing in primary than in grammar grades, and?as a corollary, of (c)?(d) that it is more important to have small classes in the primary than in the grammar grades. The usual practice, however, is to overcrowd primary classes while grammar classes are relatively small. This is sliown in table IV, the data for which were obtained from the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia for the year 1908.
TABLE IV. Annual Report, 1908. Average No. of Pupils Grade. per Teacher. s 35.5 7 40.1 G 42.9 5 45.1 4 43.7 3 44.4 2 4G.1 1 48.1 Grammar 42.0 Primary 45.7 All grades 44.5
It should be borne in mind that the data upon which this study is based include results from only about a score of schools and some 300 classes. Perhaps different results would be obtained if the investigation were widened to take in all the schools of the city. The problem is of sufficient economical and pedagogical importance to warrant further study of it, and it is hoped that careful and extensive investigation will be made.
Even if such investigation should bear out the conclusions of the present study, it would not necessarily mean that large classes are to be desired. It may be that better results are not obtained with small classes because the teachers have become so accustomed to dealing with the larger classes that they are not able when they meet the small class to adjust themselves and adapt their methods to it. Some evidence in favor of this view is found in the preference held by many teachers for classes in the forties. “I feel as if I do not have enough to work upon in a class of thirty,” is the way this preference is often given expression. Again it may be that the pupil does not reap the advantages supposed to accrue to him in small classes unless the class becomes so small that the teacher may direct a large share of attention to the study of the individual peculiarities of her pupils and to the employment of special methods in each child’s behalf. The possibility of realizing these conditions is found only in the “special class” of from 15 to 25 pupils. As was said editorially in a former number of The Psychological Clinic, “The grade teacher is interested in teaching reading, -writing and arithmetic. The special teacher must be interested in developing the individual child. … In the grades attention must ever be centered upon the curriculum,, pedagogical methods and the result as shown through class promotions. There is a problem of mass instruction, and there is an entirely different problem of individual development. These should be kept separate and distinct, and the public schools should never give up the older ideals of mass instruction. Clinical psychology and the special teacher will not supplant the more general features of the public school; they will only supplement what is already to be found in the schools, in order to make the work effective in meeting special conditions.”2 The cost of reducing regular classes to an average size of even 30 pupils would be so great as to be practically prohibitive, so that the public schools could not if they would “give up the older ideals of mass instruction.” Perhaps the most economical, as well as most effective, solution of the problem is the maintenance of regular classes of medium size?between 40 and 50 pupils?the gradation of which classes shall have been greatly improved by transferring from them to special classes?15 to 25 in membership?for individual pedagogical treatment all pupils who seriously deviate in their physical, mental, or moral characteristics from the average or normal child. 2Vol. Ill, No. 2, p. 30, April, 1909.
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