Reply to I don't understand the deal with MoCo class size

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "I don't understand the deal with MoCo class size"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

That's not actually what the studies show.  [b]The studies show that the benefits aren't statistically significant going from 25 to 24.  It doesn't mean that there aren't benefits.[/b]  
And, really, why is there always this straw man of "better to have a good teacher with a big class than a bad teacher with a small class"?  As if having smaller class sizes means having worse teachers?  That's not the choice presented here.  Just an attempt to deflect.[/quote]

It actually does mean exactly that. If something isn't statistically significant (at whatever level of statistical significance you decide to use), that means that it could very well have happened due to random chance.

And empirically, having small class sizes often does mean having worse teachers. If you halve the class sizes, you have to double your teacher workforce. Where will those teachers come from? How many good, unemployed teachers are there out there, available for hire? In fact, this is a possible explanation for the lack of effect of lowered class sizes -- that the positive effect of a smaller class was offset by the negative effect of an unqualified teacher.[/quote]

That's flatly silly.  Not finding statistical significance does not mean there's no causal effect there.  And the fact that you DO see a significant relationship when the class sizes get lower (under 20) means there's good reason to believe that in fact you just aren't able to capture the effect because of confounding factors.  So, yes it's true that we haven't PROVEN a difference between 25 and 24, but it's not at all true that there's no evidence of a negative relationship between class size and student success.
The notion that you wouldn't be able to find enough good teachers is also silly.  First of all, you don't have to be as good of a teacher when you have 18 5-year-olds versus 26 5-year-olds.  You have to be good to handle 18 of them, yes, but you have to be FANTASTIC to do a great job with 26 of them. Secondly, there's a market for teachers, and when there are more job openings, the teaching career becomes more attractive for college kids (because they know they're going to get a job) and more kids go into teaching.  Does MCPS have trouble filling slots for its teachers?  No.  The quality issues with teachers in MCPS do not have to do with not having enough teaching applicants.  They have to do with not being able to get rid of bad teachers so they can replace them with better ones who want that job.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics