[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.

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