Chronicle of Higher Ed:

http://chronicle.texterity.com/chronicle/20090807b/?pg=17

An education blog:

http://www.aboutlearning.com/bernices-blog/165-rigor-in-the-curriculum-what-exactly-is-it.html

Mike Klonsky’s blog:

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2009/07/two-good-reads.html

California Watch, an investigative journalism group, recently studied class size in the 30 largest districts in California to see what was happening with the voluntary 20-student cap in K-3. This map lets you see exactly who’s opting in and who’s opting out.

A recent article in Columbia University’s paper brings out the tensions over whether class size is an underacknowledged secret ingredient of the appeal of the charter school trend.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit that advocates for smaller class sizes in New York City, argued … “It’s great that charter schools have smaller classes,” she added, “but not at the cost of overcrowding public schools and denying the same opportunity to public school students.”

Here’s a good recent piece on class size as it impacts African-American students. What’s brought out in the article is also that Californians pay for the (now crumbling) K-3 reductions to 20 with the largest middle and high school classes in the country.

John Rogers, director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA), said … it’s important to note that California already has the largest class sizes in the country in middle and high schools, particularly in the subject areas of English, social studies and science.

According to the Tampa Tribune, a bill to weaken the voter-approved amendment limiting class size in every grade has been introduced in the state senate.

Paradoxically, the economic downturn has both raised the profile of the class size issue nationwide and endangered one of the last decade’s boldest measures to reduce class size.

An Education Week piece quotes Duncan directly connecting class size to teacher quality, rather than the standard argument that they’re somehow in competition.

He says a class size drop to 15 would make a difference for students experiencing the least success.

He questioned whether reducing class sizes by just a few students, as has been reported anecdotally under Title II, represents a breakthrough in teacher quality. “if you’re going to do something, do it” by reducing classes from, say, 26 to 15 students for low-income students, he said.

‘Nuf said, Arne, let’s do it.

Apparently Wales has an elementary class size limit of 30 and it’s being violated and fudged with by leaps and bounds this year.

Across Wales, 3,119 children aged five to seven are taught in classes with more than 30 pupils – the Welsh Assembly Government’s statutory limit – compared with 2,013 last year.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/11/30/classroom-overcrowding-up-by-a-third-since-2008-91466-25284139/