More expensive than what? A quick comment on CAP’s CSR report
Blog by Bruce D. Baker/School Finance 101
The Center for American Progress today release a report on class size reduction authored by Matthew Chingos, who has conducted a handful of recent interesting studies on the topic. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/04/pdf/class_size.pdf This report reads more or less like a manifesto against class size reduction as a strategy for improving school quality and student outcomes. I’ll admit that I’m also probably not the biggest advocate for class size reduction as a single, core strategy for education reform, and that I do favor some balanced emphasis on teacher quality issues. I’m also not the naysayer that I once was regarding class size reduction and its relative costs. There still exists too little decisive information regarding the cost-benefit tradeoffs between the two – teacher quantity and teacher quality. I only had a chance to view this report briefly, and one specific section caught my eye – the section titled: CSR, The Most Expensive School Reform. (more...)