A discussion of small class sizesIntroductionA low student-teacher ratio is often used as a selling point to parents seeking a better education for their children or to pass legislation establishing a maximum student-teacher ratio. for specific grade levels. When ratios are used to support an argument, they are often presented in a way that biases the examples in favor of the argument. When such statistics are used for schools, they often represent averages and become very vulnerable to manipulation and further debate. This article will address the issue of small class sizes and data that have been formulated and presented in the past. When a class is large, it often disrupts the education of the general group with a diverse group of students to varying degrees. learning ability. As a result, the class might spend less time with higher-level students in order to keep less academic students current with lesson plans, otherwise the opposite may occur. For this reason, student-teacher ratios make good arguments for advanced or specialized courses. Many analysts have found that out-of-school resources play a negligible role in improving student outcomes while in school. Yet many economists have compiled data showing that students who attend well-funded schools grow up and experience greater success in the job market than children whose education takes place in schools where resources are limited. Positive Learning ExperienceHaving spent all of my school years from K-12 in public schools with the maximum class size allowed by law, my study of the article "The Lasting Effects of Small Classrooms" provided me an interesting insight into how my experiences may have affected my early studies. I witnessed......middle of paper......the addition of a teaching assistant. The advantages of a small class are obvious, but the methods of teaching such a group are not. Works Cited Finn, JD, Gerber, SB and Achilles, CM (2001). The lasting effects of small classes. Teachers College Record, 103, 145-183. Finn, J.D., Pannozzo, G.M., Achilles, C.M. (2003). The “why” of class size: Student behavior in small classes. Review of Educational Research, 73, 321-368. Clark, A.M., Anderson, R.C., Kuo, L. (2003). Collaborative reasoning: expanding the ways children can talk and think in school. Educational Psychology Review, 15, 181-198. Kirschner, P., Sweller, J., and Clark, R. (2006). Why minimal supervision during teaching doesn't work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery-based, problem-based, experience-based, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational psychologist, 41(2), 75-86