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Justin Apfel
Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow II
Mr. Merritt
March 13, 2011
Fewer Students, Please
Imagine sitting in the classroom, in any grade and in any school, with a very important
question that should not be left unanswered, but because many others in the class have questions,
the bell rings before the question has been identified. Leaving the class with the question still in
mind and the answer still somewhere other than connected with the request, tonight’s homework
will be left blank, the problem will be forgotten, and the grade will plummet. It is hard for one
teacher to answer all of their student’s requests if there are 25 to 30 children in the classroom.
For students to achieve their life long goals and receive the best education possible teachers must
devote a certain and equal amount of time to each pupil, and this simply cannot be done with
such a large class size. With a class size under 20 students, teachers can devote much more time
to each child. Following the reduction of class size, the achievement of students will gradually
increase (“Reducing Class Size”).
Although many positive consequences come with reducing the ratio of students to
teachers, the negative costs cannot be avoided. The number one disadvantage to decreasing class
size is the cost (“Class Size”). This cost comes from the hiring of new teachers and the need for
more classrooms. To create smaller class sizes one state alone would have to hire 30,000 new
teachers (Wall). So if the whole United States wanted to reduce class sizes, the nation would
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have to hire 1.5 million new teachers. Another major concern is the quality of teachers this new
change would produce. “One concern is that the press for quantity will come at the expense of
quality” (“Class Size”). However, most of these obstacles can be avoided.
With the expense of a few minor setbacks, the advantages would greatly outweigh the
disadvantages. First off, the reduction of class size produces greater student achievement. This is
due to more attention and time devoted to each and every student by the teacher. With a smaller
class, the teacher can dedicate far more individual time to all learners. At the fourth grade level,
achievements because of class size were within the mathematics scores. At the eighth grade
level, the reduction proved to create a better social environment as well as produce higher test
scores. Also when the class size is decreased, behavior becomes less of a problem (“Reduce
Class Sizes”). This will create fewer interruptions during class giving the teacher more time to do
what he or she is there to do. Because there are fewer students in one classroom, there will be
fewer students to distract each other from learning which will produce better achievement.
Another major advancement that comes from reducing class size is the amount of students that
drop out decreases greatly (“Reduce Class Sizes”).
Reducing the amount of students in the classroom helps everyone. Studies have shown
that African American students benefit the most from smaller class sizes (“Class Size”). Poverty
stricken students have also proved to benefit greatly because of class size reduction. Another
huge advancement class size reduction brings is the identification of student disabilities earlier
than in larger classes (“Reduce Class Sizes”). Among all students the reduction of students per
classroom encourages them to be more engaged in learning due to stronger relationships between
the students and the teacher (“Reducing Class Size, What Do We Know?”). With fewer students
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in the class, the noise level would be reduced greatly as well allowing the students to pay more
attention to learning (“Reducing Class Size”).
This idea of reducing the number of students in each classroom is a very valid solution to
making achievement easier for every student. Each pupil will receive a quality education and be
treated fairly within the classroom. The advantages greatly outweigh the minor disadvantages
when dealing with class size reduction, and the disadvantages can be avoided and dealt with.
Every school in America should work its way to limiting classes to 20 students per teacher to
reach higher test scores and better pass rates. Within my internship we have about 22 students in
the classroom which is average. At the beginning of the year we had 30 students and since the
class has been reduced the noise level throughout the classroom has decreased and no student has
to hold their hand in the hair for more than about a minute without being helped.