STAR: :: essays papers

STAR: One such study is called Tennessee’s Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) Project. This study was made in an effort to find out the best number of students for one teacher to teach. â€Å"STAR was a large-scale, four-year, longitudinal, experimental study of reduced class size† (Reduce Class Size Now, 2003 p. 1). This project kept track of 11,600 Tennessee students in 76 schools (Small Class Size, 1999). This study found out a lot of ways that small classes are beneficial. STAR â€Å"reported in 1997 that students placed in classes of 13 to 17 children, throughout their K-3 years, outperformed students in standard classes of 22 to 25† (Small Class Size, 1999). It was found that if students are placed in smaller classrooms from kindergarten to third grade, they will perform better than students in regular sized classrooms. This is true if the students return to a regular sized classroom for forth grade as well (Small Class Size, 1999). The study found that as long as the student spent a full three years in a small classroom, the advantages would be seen. It has also been reported by STAR that the students in the smaller classes were 6 – 14 months ahead of the students in regular size classrooms. This large gap shows that it is much easier for students to comprehend information in smaller classrooms. A few other benefits from small classes were found, for example, students in small classrooms are 7% more likely to graduate on time. It was also found that students in small classrooms are 4% less likely to drop out of high school (Small Class Size, 1999). Over all, this study showed that â€Å"lowering class size substantially improved student achievement and was especially effective for poor children† (Small Class Size: Education Reform that works, 2003 p. 1). With all these positive effects shown by reducing class size, class size reduction should be strongly considered. North Carolina Lab Schools: Tennessee’s Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) Project is not the only study that has been conducted on the issue of class size. North Carolina has also conducted a study on this issue. North Carolina established three lab schools for the purpose of providing smaller classes (Harman, 2002). Classes for kindergarten thru second grade range from 14 – 21 students and for third grade thru fifth grade students, the class size ranged from 11 – 22.