Remember this brilliant study?
Well, a new one says "In fact, the study found that low-attaining students were nearly twice as likely to be disengaged in classes of 30 students as they were in classes of 15." I couldn't read any further to find out if my tax dollars had paid for this study or not. They could have just called me.
7 comments:
oh Lordy, I don't know where to even begin! Sigh.....
I wish I were the one getting paid to make brilliant discoveries like this.
I am about to hijack your blog.
Oh. My. Goodness. My blood pressure did NOT need this.
Ahem.
I am so glad someone decided to spend WONGO bucks determining what many, Many, MANY educators could have told them all along.
That being said. This year some co-workers and I have made the very SAME "scientific" discovery while at work and on contract--no fancy schmancy study needed.
We have taught one semester workshop classes--and full year semester workshop classes to kids who have failed the reading TAKS one or more times in the past--oh--all of their school career. Some of them have NEVER passed the reading TAKS--and they are 8th grade!!!!!!!!!
Boo-Yah--Only 17 out of 500 kids did NOT pass it in the 8th grade this year. . .I taught 23 struggling kiddos this year. Of my 23, 22 passed. And the one who did not pass only missed passing by one question.
Of the 23 FOUR were commended--and two only missed being commended by 1 or 2 questions.
Of the 23 8 of them had NEVER, EVER, EVER passed TAKS before. You can only imagine the DELIGHT--THE PRIDE--THE JOY when they actually did pass.
The answer--they were in classes of 12 or less being taught skills that they had missed when they were younger/in larger classes and having their confidence built by being able to read, read, read and answer questions that they normally would not answer for fear of being wrong.
I wonder what a researcher earns these days. . .oh, never mind, although my salary pales in comparison, I was actually IN the classroom TEACHING and helping kids do what the reasearchers just discovered they could do--
SUCCEED IN SMALLER CLASSES.
Hmmm, I wonder if low-achieving students might be four times as likely to be engaged in class of 60...
Amazing.
Ooh, I've got a good idea. Maybe we could put them in smaller classes... Hey, hey - pay me big bucks - I'm brilliant!
I finally gave up and retired, when I kept coming to the same conclusion and keep having to go to stupid seminars, etc. Well, actually, I just got tired of the whole thing, so would probably have retired whether I'd figured that out or not. Barbara
Isn't it amazing what government will pay someone (or a committee) to do? Any teacher in a classroom could answer the question. I've taught for more than 20 years with class sizes between 18 and 36. On average I've taught 130 students per day. When it was 110, much better!!! Do I know this???? Yep. The 18 (a fluke, one year, one class) was soooooo much easier to keep engaged -- and improved so much more! Duh!!
People do stupid studies like this all the time, and then they are so proud of what they found. We just want to say - save your $ and use common sense!
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