Letter: Class-size debate must be clearer
Entrepreneurs are making forays into education services. One offers teachers a platform to swap what works in the classroom. Credit: Getty Images
Perhaps what is most disappointing about the opinion piece by Philip S. Cicero ["By the numbers," Opinion, Jan. 15], is that he is a retired superintendent of schools and a professor of education. Clearly he is attempting to discredit class size as one quality of an effective school.
An important dimension of statistical studies is maintaining consistent and clearly definable units of measure. Yet Cicero initially dismisses all the related research by declaring the importance of class size as a "myth."
He supports his position first by stating that maintaining small classes is too expensive in these times. An entirely different question than the one posed is whether small classrooms are more effective.
He then introduces a second argument, that "kids can't be expected to reach their full potential if they're taught by unqualified or ineffective teachers." Of course, but who put that into the equation? A proper, controlled statistical study would compare excellent teachers in larger and smaller classrooms. Certainly, "a good teacher in a class of 21 students is still good in a class of 25." But the question to be asked is, is the result the same?
While he admits that the most important variable is the teacher, he resorts to a recent Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll which indicates that "three out of four Americans surveyed indicated that they would prefer larger classes with more effective teachers than smaller classes with less effective teachers" -- as if these were the only choices. Talk about stacking the results!
Murray Wilkow, Old Bethpage
Editor's note: The writer is a retired school counselor and an adjunct professor at Hofstra University.
