A MATTER OF FAITH :

Study questions class size reduction : Report shows that state test scores did not improve as much as had been anticipated since the law was passed in 1996 (Jessica Brice, June 26, 2002, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

California's $1 billion-a-year experiment with class size reduction isn't producing the monumental benefits lawmakers had hoped for, according to a study released Tuesday.

The Public Policy Institute of California found that while many schools across the state boosted test scores, other schools appeared to benefit little, if at all, from the class size reduction law that passed in 1996.

Overall, schools that reduced their average class size by 10 students saw the number of third-graders with test scores above the national median jump by only 3 percent to 4 percent, according to the report released by the institute, a San Francisco-based think-tank.

Imagine the effort of faith it takes, in the face of the fact that the decline in the quality of American education over the last forty years has precisely coincided with falling class sizes, to believe that reducing them further would magically increase scores. As Samuel Johnson said of second marriages : "it's the triumph of hope over experience". Posted by Orrin Judd at June 26, 2002 6:02 PM