Small classes praised

Re: In School, Size Doesn’t Matter, editorial, Sept. 15. After reading this editorial epistle on class size, I must assign you a failing grade.

Recently retired from a 30-year teaching career, I can assure you that smaller classes do make a difference both in terms of achievement and students’ attitudes toward school. Smaller classes allow for more personal interaction between students and teachers, and reduce paperwork and classroom management issues so teachers can spend more time planning and teaching lessons.

You note, “ Yet remarkably there is almost no research to support the movement to reduce class size.” Curiously, a study published in the May, 2005 issue of Psychology Today

shows that smaller elementary school classes lead to higher grades and higher graduation rates.

Moreover, you appear to have missed the largest study ever done on class size, (a 1999 study involving 2.4 million Texas students) that showed that student achievement dropped in Grades 1 through 7 for every student over an 18:1 student-teacher ratio.

Your editorial board members will have to stay after class and write, “Every absurdity has a champion to defend it” 100 times on the blackboard.