Reduction and Effect

Reduction and Effect

Class size reduction has made a difference in how first grade students learn and interact with one another. Now, class size reductions have made it easier for teachers as well. Even though they have higher standards, teachers have more time to help any student that needs it. Every second is valuable time that makes the student feel important when the time is given to them by answering all of their questions. When the teacher shows interest in the students’ question, the student feels like if he is learning more and is less afraid to ask any questions or let any concerns out.

Students are sometimes afraid to ask a question because a classmate might laugh at the question. Students are also afraid to answer most of the time because they are afraid that their answer could be wrong. When other students laugh at one another, it makes them shy and they never get across a clear point because they will not let the question out. Therefore, class reductions have made students improve their interaction with the teacher and have been showing positive results. Ever since class size reduction has taken effect in 1996, test scores have been improving throughout the years within kindergarten through third grade.

Mrs. Bustamante, a first grade teacher at Wilson Elementary in Lynwood stated: “I have seen positive results within the last few days of school compared to within the first few days I started to teach”. Mrs. Bustamante has been teaching for two years as a

first grade teacher and has had less than twenty students ever since. She thinks that her last year students are now able to clarify themselves by asking questions and answering them without any worries or doubt. “When I first started to teach, some students where still shy to respond to me because they were afraid of being wrong and throughout the year it was easier for them to ask me questions and answer my questions. I taught them to be self confident by putting them in groups to answer questions and have them think until they asked me questions. This really worked because they would see how I would respond to them, and that there are more than one student with questions.”

With students moving on, they are more likely to be more successful than the students that where in kindergarten through third