Why Do Large Classes Increase Literacy Rate

Ninety-one percent of children in the United States attend one of thousands of public schools every day. Over 34 million of those students attend elementary schools learning basic reading, mathematics, and science skills. With a huge increase in students, larger elementary schools and larger classes are being created. But research shows that these large schools and classes are decreasing the literacy rate of the average elementary school student. Students who attend a smaller elementary school will learn better and have a higher literacy rate because of higher class participation, a better teacher student relationship, and a more interventions to prevent falling behind. Most schools are created to be cost-effective with tax dollars. This usually means having a very large building with not enough teachers to teach all the students who will be in attendance. Or it results in having a smaller building that is over-attended, resulting in very large class sizes of up to 35 to 40 students. According to studies done by the University of Michigan, “research has indicated that large schools can be detrimental to students because student participation and attendance suffer.” (UMICH 2). With an increase in budget cuts and an increase in …show more content…
It is believed that more experienced teachers can easily adapt to effectively teach the new large class sizes, while rookie teachers need to have small classes to “get into the swing” of teaching. “Evidence shows the opposite is true. Positive impacts of small classes were found to be larger for experienced teachers. Experienced teachers can take advantage of the smaller class size and make more effective teaching practices and make concepts easier to comprehend.” (Schanzenbach 6). Everyone will benefit from smaller class sizes both experienced and less-experienced teachers and most importantly the students themselves will greatly