How Much and Why Does Class Size Matter?

描述(申请人提供)：近年来，小班对儿童学习的影响受到越来越多的关注，因为来自实验研究(田纳西州STAR实验)的证据表明，小班对小学生有显著的好处。尽管实验研究具有吸引力，但其范围仍然有限，因为它们的概括性、检查更广泛结果的能力以及探索班级规模可能影响儿童结果的机制的能力。在这项研究中，我们建议研究班级规模与儿童的学习行为、教学实践、父母的参与以及儿童的认知和社会行为结果之间的关系。我们将使用早期儿童纵向研究-幼儿园班级(ECLS-K)的小组数据，这是一个具有全国代表性的美国幼儿园儿童样本，它收集了多个时间点(幼儿园、一年级和三年级)儿童的学习行为和学校结果、父母参与、教学实践和班级规模的详细信息。我们将同时关注班级规模和教职员工与儿童的比例，因为小学教师在课堂上经常使用助手来帮助他们，这可能会影响儿童在课堂上获得的个人注意力。我们将使用同一儿童的班级规模随时间的变化来估计儿童固定效应模型，该模型将识别班级规模的影响。这种方法将消除由与班级大小和感兴趣的结果相关的时间不变的个人和家庭不可观测的因素产生的任何偏差。这项研究的结果将是重要的，因为它们将有助于理解小班或大班可能影响儿童学习的机制，并将指导这一领域的政策制定。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The impact of small class size on children's learning has received increased attention in recent years as evidence from experimental studies (Tennessee STAR experiment) has shown significant benefits of smaller class size for elementary school children. Despite the appeal of experimental studies, their scope remains limited in terms of their generalizeability, ability to examine a wider range of outcomes and explore mechanisms through which class size may affect child outcomes. In this study, we propose to examine how class size is related to children's learning behavior, teaching practices, parental involvement and children's cognitive and social-behavioral outcomes. We will use panel data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of kindergartners in the U.S., which collected detailed information on children's learning behavior and school outcomes, parental involvement, teaching practices and class size at multiple time points (kindergarten, first grade, and third grade). We will focus on both class size and staff-to-child ratio because teachers in elementary school often use aides in class to assist them, which is likely to impact the amount of individual attention that children receive in class. We will estimate child fixed-effect models that will identify class-size effects using over time variation in class size for the same child. This approach will eliminate any bias generated from time invariant individual and family unobservables that are related to class size and the outcomes of interest. The findings of this study will be important because they will help to understand the mechanisms through which smaller or larger class sizes may affect children's learning and will guide policy making in this area.