Class Size Matters
I read an interesting study on how your Kindergarten class affects your earnings. The study was done out of Harvard and there was a collaboration with the National Bureau of Economic research. The authors analyzed the Project STAR study where 11,571 students in. Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms within their schools from Kindergarten to Third Grade. The key difference in this study was the linking of the participants to IRS data to understand income levels.
I think it’s important to highlight some key aspects of this study.
- Students in lower class sizes in K-3 are 1.6x more likely to attend college before age 27.
- Students in lower class sizes from K-3 after controlling for demographics earn 3.4% more than students in larger classes.
- Students in lower class sizes in K-3 generally have higher test scores.
- The study also highlighted other things like having a 401k, home ownership, mobility rates, etc – all of which are thought of as proxies for having a “good job”
What does this mean for Sutton? It means that we need to think long term about where we cut and what we cut.
If we believe that the Early Learning Center and the Elementary school are the foundations of our district – why would we cut teachers from them?
If we believe that high achievement and academic rigor is important to make our district competitive – why would we cut out our very core.
If we want students to stay in district and build long lasting relationships – why would we consign students in the early years of developing academic, social and emotional skills into higher class sizes where they will loose the very 1:1 help that they need?
We need to make cuts, but we need to be smart about it.
Here’s a link to the study I mentioned
https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star_paper.pdf
