Do Small Classes Reduce the Achievement Gap between Low and High Achievers? Evidence from Project Star

47 Pages Posted: 20 Jul 2007

See all articles by Spyros Konstantopoulos

Spyros Konstantopoulos

Boston College; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: July 2007

Abstract

Given that previous findings on the social distribution of the effects of small classes have been mixed and inconclusive, in the present study I attempted to shed light on the mechanism through which small classes affect the achievement of low- and high-achieving students. I used data from a 4-year large-scale randomized experiment (project STAR) to examine the effects of small classes on the achievement gap. The sample consisted of nearly 11,000 elementary school students who participated in the experiment from kindergarten to grade 3. Meta-analysis and quantile regression methods were employed to examine the effects of small classes on the achievement gap in mathematics and reading SAT scores. The results consistently indicated that higher-achieving students benefited more from being in small classes in early grades than other students. The findings also indicated that although all types of students benefited from being in small classes, reductions in class size did not reduce the achievement gap between low and high achievers.

Keywords: small classes, achievement variability, meta-analysis

JEL Classification: I2

Suggested Citation

Konstantopoulos, Spyros, Do Small Classes Reduce the Achievement Gap between Low and High Achievers? Evidence from Project Star (July 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2904, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1000884 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1000884

Spyros Konstantopoulos (Contact Author)

Boston College ( email )

140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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