Class Size and Pupil-Teacher Ratios

This book provides a primer with respect to the debate about class size between economists andeducators. In particular it offers an overview of how economists look at school funding problems, andmakes a comparison between the work of the Chicago School and others like Eric Hanushek, whichhas focused intensely on the economic relationship between public spending on educational resourcesand the cost of equipping and expanding school infrastructure, and student outcomes. The booktherefore focuses on class size as a primary example of the way in which economists have come totreat teaching and learning as a site for the development of human capital.The book also takes a historical look at the debate about class size from the perspective of theories about public choice, which haveemerged from the Chicago School through the writings of Milton Friedman. This raises the issue of how the notion of the public isunderstood, and whether educators and economists are coming from different perspectives about what schools should do for thecommunity. Many educationists think about the problem of class size from the perspective of a classroom teacher, who must eyeballher students and regard them as flesh-and-blood individuals, whereas economists deal in statistical numbers and shouldtherefore be understood as regarding class size as symptomatic of population issues.The book surveys the two sides of the long-standing debate about class size and its supposed relationship to student achievement.The aim is to disclose a theoretical principle that is adopted by both sides in the debate, even if neither side is conscious of it. Thisprinciple relates to the issue of individuals and populations as a binary opposition thatsupplies either side with a valid viewpoint. The book explores this principle, arguing thateach of these opposing perspectives depends on the other for its own logical outcome. Thebook analyses the procedure of opposing individuals to populations and demonstrates thatthe question of class size could be more effectively approached by dealing with the principlethat is at its core.