You can find some studies that indicate that bigger classes have better effects on learning. Critics offer all kinds of suggestions. Train teachers in better intervention strategies and teaching techniques, such as cooperative learning, some critics suggest. Add aides and special teachers whose job it will be to focus on helping students in need, others say. Focus on low-achieving schools first, individual tutoring, early childhood programs .
Suggestions abound .
Robert Slavin, a Johns Hopkins University professor, agrees that money could be better focused. Evidence comes from a study of 16 low-income schools in Austin, Texas. Fourteen of the schools spent the money to reduce class size and yet in five years didn't manage to improve student attendance or test scores. But the other two schools reduced class size, set higher standards, provided intensive teacher training, and established health clinics on their grounds to address physical problems that were keeping students from learning. Test scores and attendance both improved significantly at those schools.