Class Size

People usually think that smaller class sizes are always better for classroom environments, however, this is not the case at all.  In Malcolm Gladwell's book, David and Goliath he explains why small classes can be just as harmful as large ones.

Essentially, students in small classes don't have as many peers to bounce ideas off of or get help from.  A smaller class can more easily be dominated by one or two troublemakers, the teacher can't use the same methods he or she does with a large class to effectively teach a small one, and students feel like the group is too intimate and it is difficult to maintain the level of autonomy in learning that they want.  The magic numbers seem to hove around 18-24, but anything from 18-28 or so is probably acceptable, depending on the teacher.

Speaking from personal experience, I've had classes with over 30 children in it and I thought it was great, but not everything works for everybody, and the teacher probably thought it was pretty hectic.  On the other hand, I've been in classes like Aca Deca, and self-learning classes that had less than ten people.  It was by far the most disorganized and out of control classes I have ever been in.  Students did anything they wanted to do, we talked about anything almost whenever we wanted to, and one or two kids did indeed run the show it seemed.

My point is that in America, we have spent billions of dollars on trying to reduce class sizes, because intuitively it sounds like the best option.  It even looks great on paper!  All we have really done though is reduce class sizes to our detriment, both because it cost a ton of money, and because students suffer.  What we should really do is increase teacher salary and increase class sizes to be at least 24 students or so.  This would attract good teaching talent to schools that need it, and the larger classes (although let's be honest, most schools have more than 24 students per class) would help the students.  Increasing the number of students and reducing the number of teachers in districts that can do this allow shifting funds towards schools that actually need a reduction in class size.  Most immediately, schools with 40 or more students in classrooms would need help, but anything around 35 could probably use a reduction.

This is simply one of the counter-intuitive solutions that most Americans disagree with, but if we gave it a try, I am confident that it would make education better for both students and teachers.