[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 60 (Thursday, April 29, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4427-S4428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EDUCATION AND CLASS SIZE
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, while I have the floor, I want to turn
quickly to a different topic, and that is on the issue of education and
class size.
I know my colleagues have watched me come to the floor and talk
numerous times about how important it is that we reduce class sizes in
the grades of 1 through 3. I have talked about the research in this
country which has shown that reducing class size makes a difference for
our students.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a report from
Tennessee that has just come out. It is called the Star Report.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Project STAR News]
Benefits of Small Classes Pay Off at Graduation
project star finds small classes in K-3 linked to greater student
achievement, better grades, lower dropout rates, and higher college
aspirations
Washington, D.C.--A ground-breaking Tennessee-based class
size study has found that public school students placed in
small classes in grades K-3 continue to outperform students
in larger classes right through high school graduation.
Researchers for Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement
Ratio)--whose earlier findings helped form the basis for
class size reduction in some 20 states--today reported that
students placed in small class sizes in grades K-3 have
better high school graduation rates, higher grade point
averages, and are more inclined to pursue higher education.
``This research adds to the evidence we have compiled over
the past 14 years,'' said Dr. Helen Pate-Bain, who convinced
the Tennessee state legislature to provide funding for the
initial STAR research. ``The project's findings indicate that
students placed in small classes in grades K-3 continue to
benefit from that experience in grades 4-12.''
The original STAR research tracked the progress of an
average of 6,500 students each year in 79 schools between
1985 and 1989 (and 11,600 students overall). It found that
children who attended small classes (13-17 pupils per
teacher) in kindergarten through grade 3 outperformed
students in larger classes (22-25 pupils) in both reading and
math on the Stanford Achievement Test for elementary
students. The second phase of the STAR research found that
even after returning to larger classes in grade 4, STAR's
small class students continued to outperform their peers who
had been in larger class sizes.
At a news conference held today at the National Press Club,
STAR researchers released a new wave of findings:
Students in small classes are more likely to pursue
college: STAR students who attended small classes--and black
students in that group in particular--were more likely to
take the ACT or SAT college entrance exams, according to
Princeton University economist Dr. Alan B. Krueger, who
researched test data linked to the Project STAR database.
``Attendance in small classes appears to have cut the black-
white gap in the probability of taking college-entrance exam
by more than half,'' Krueger said.
Small classes lead to higher graduation rates: Preliminary
data from participating STAR school districts in Tennessee
show that students in small classes were more likely to
graduate on schedule; they were less likely to drop out of
high school; and they were more likely to graduate in the top
25% of their classes, according to Dr. Jayne Boyd-Zaharias, a
STAR researcher since 1986. In addition. Boyd-Zaharias found
that small class students graduated with higher grade point
averages (GPAs) than regular class size students.
Students in small classes achieve at higher levels: Three
other reearchers--Dr. Jeremy D. Finn, professor of education
at SUNY Buffalo, Susan B. Gerber of SUNY Buffalo, and Charles
M. Achilles, Ed.D., of Eastern Michigan University, together
with Boyd-Zaharias--released new findings showing that STAR
students who attended small classes in grades K-3 were
between 6 and 13 months ahead of their regular-class peers in
math, reading, and science in each of grades 4, 6, and 8.
``Our analyses show that at least three years in a small
class are necessary in order for the benefits to be sustained
through later grades,'' wrote the researchers. ``Further, the
benefits of having been in a small class in the primary years
generally increase from grade to grade.''
Class size is different from pupil/teacher ratio: Achilles,
one of the original STAR researchers, explained the
difference between class size (the number of students
assigned to a teacher) and pupil/teacher ratio (the total
number of students divided by the total number of educators
in a school). Many ``class size'' studies, he noted, have
relied on pupil/teacher ratios to make their case. The STAR
research is able to track students based on specific class
size. Achilles noted that some 20 states--including Michigan,
California, Nevada, Florida, Texas, Utah, Illinois, Indiana,
New York, Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota, Massachusetts, South
Carolina, and Wisconsin--have initiated or considered STAR-
like class size reduction efforts.
Teachers who taught small classes in Project STAR support
the program strongly.
``All educators instinctively know that the smaller the
class size, the more individual attention a teacher can
provide a student,'' said Sandy Heinrich, a teacher at
Granbery Elementary School in Davidson County, Tenn., who
taught first grade in the STAR program in 1986. ``The more
individual attention per student, the more learning and
personal growth each student can enjoy. I was
[[Page S4428]]
fortunate enough to witness this notion first-hand.''
The STAR research is the only large-scale, long-term class
size research of its kind. Dr. Frederick Mosteller, a
professor of mathematical statistics at Harvard University,
said this about STAR in 1995: ``Because a controlled
education experiment (as distinct from a sample survey) of
this quality, magnitude, and duration is a rarity, it is
important that both educators and policymakers have access to
its statistical information and understand its
implications.''
In fact, the STAR research provided support for federal
legislation that proposes to reduce class sizes by hiring
100,000 new teachers in grades K-3 nationwide.
Last fall, Congress appropriated $1.2 billion in the FY
1999 federal budget as a ``down-payment'' on that
legislation, enough to hire approximately 30,000 teachers for
one year. Future funding will require congressional
authorization and additional annual appropriations. Pate-Bain
was scheduled to share the new STAR findings with a number of
education policy experts and Members of Congress later in the
day.
Mrs. MURRAY. This is a report about a study that researchers in
Tennessee began many years ago in relation to reduced class size in the
first through third grades. They followed those young people all the
way through to the point where they are now graduating this year.
It is a very impressive study. It shows exactly what I have been
debating on the floor of the Senate; and that is that students who are
in smaller class sizes in the first through third grades are more
likely to pursue college, have higher graduation rates, they achieve at
higher levels, and it makes a difference in discipline.
Mr. President, it seems to me that we have to get back to this issue.
I urge all of my colleagues to take a second look and recognize that we
can make a difference by continuing our support of class size reduction
and teacher training here in the Senate.
I ask unanimous consent that the 23 Senators on the list that I send
to the desk be added as cosponsors to my bill, S. 564, the Class Size
Reduction and Teacher Quality Act of 1999.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. MURRAY. Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________