She has taught classes with as many as 32 children, and classes with as few as 18. Not surprisingly, she's found that fewer is better. Even the little things make a difference.
Smaller classes are so much more manageable.
And they're especially important in these early grades because at that age the children really need a lot of individual attention. Several important studies, some of them conducted over many years, have shown that class size reduction in the early grades has many benefits, including higher pupil achievement in reading and math. Smaller classes have been shown to be particularly beneficial for poor and minority students. The most celebrated study, Tennessee's Project STAR, showed that students in smaller classes tended to achieve higher grades, had better high school graduation rates and were more likely to attend college. Some of this improvement was lost when the youngsters returned to normal-size classes, but not all of it.