[RUME] A Response to "It's Not All About Class Size"

[Richard Hake]

Some mathematicians may be interested in "A Response to 'It's Not All 
About Class Size' " [Hake (2009)].  The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: Stephen Ceci and Spyros Konstantopoulos in a "Chronicle of 
Higher Education" commentary "It's Not All About Class Size" point 
out that the new administration needs to be aware that attempts to 
fulfill its pledge to narrow the *international* achievement gap 
between America and its international competitors by reforms such as 
decreasing class sizes might thereby widen the *domestic* achievement 
gap that separates black and white, rich and poor.  But, in my 
opinion, the new administration also needs to be aware that a major 
cause of the domestic achievement gap is POVERTY, as forcefully 
argued by David Berliner.  I submit that:
(a) reduction of poverty in the U.S. might reduce *both* the domestic 
and international achievement gaps, since then the learning of *all* 
students, not just the advantaged, would be increased by reforms such 
as reduction in class size, more effective teachers, and more 
effective pedagogy; (b) a more important reason for increasing 
student learning than narrowing the international achievement gap is 
the need to alleviate the science/math illiteracy of the general 
population and thereby lessen the threat to life on planet Earth.
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To access the entire 15 kB post  please click on <http://tinyurl.com/daf85y>.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of  Deventer, The Netherlands.
<rrhake at earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/> (Contains this post and allows comments.)

REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2009. "A Response to 'It's Not All About Class Size', " 
AERA-L post of 6 Feb 2009 09:42:04-0800; online on the OPEN! AERA-L 
archives at <http://tinyurl.com/daf85y>,  and also at 
<http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/response-to-its-not-all-about-class.html> 
where comments may be easily posted.