Chapter 8: Class Size Reduction: A Decade of Research, Policy, and Initiatives

This chapter discusses SERVE’s involvement with class size reduction efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s. Dr. Paula Egelson and I, as well as other SERVE colleagues, were involved in numerous evaluative studies across the Southeast. These studies ranged from state to district to school. We presented these results in a number of venues, including refereed journals, SERVE publications, conferences, and workshops. We also developed workshops across the Southeast as well as a 2-day conference to facilitate educators’ understanding of class size reduction and potential best practices.

Data sources for our evaluations included standardized achievement tests, focus groups, interviews, surveys, and observations. Standardized achievement tests included the North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests and well as a standardized test for primary groups. Focus group protocols as well as interview and survey instruments were developed by SERVE. Some observation protocols were developed in-house while others were standardized instruments. Four interviews were recently conducted with practitioners involved with class size initiatives. While this chapter shares some of the results we found, the intent of the chapter is to explain to the reader our approaches and to reflect on our work and aspects we should have done differently.