Letter to the Minister of Education, from Professor John O'Neill in response to an exchange during question time in parliament.

The effects of class size on teaching and learning (Questions for oral answer, question 12, 8 February 2012)

Read the letter to the Minister - The effects of class size on teaching and learning

The effects of class size on teaching and learning

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In conclusion, Minister. A dispassionate assessment of all the available research evidence on class size effects clearly shows that the Treasury’s advice is wrong. The evidence also suggests that in order to raise student achievement, the country needs to adopt a different education policy research and development stance entirely on this issue.

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Treasury asserts that it is possible to increase student teacher ratios in schools without adversely affecting this complex challenge.

However, the evidence on which this assertion is based is seriously flawed because it fails to take into account what happens to real teaching and learning processes, and student achievement in larger classes.

New Zealand’s student teacher ratios are presently higher than the OECD mean in primary and lower secondary schools, which infers that average class sizes are also larger than the OECD mean.

Naturalistic studies of class size effects on teaching and learning clearly demonstrate multiple links between class size and classroom processes.
These same studies suggest that larger class sizes have the most adverse consequences for the achievement of the very groups of learners the Ministry of Education states are its priorities.

There is no evidence-based justification to increase student teacher ratios in schools. On the contrary, OECD data suggests that priority groups of learners would benefit if ratios were to be reduced further in primary and lower secondary schools.

I would respectfully suggest that the only logical and moral actions open to you are to (i) publicly and forcefully reject the Treasury’s suggestion to increase student teacher ratios; and (ii) ensure that any class size-related policy proposals you may make to Cabinet are founded on thorough, accurate, informed, free and frank policy advice on the known effects of larger class sizes on your priority groups of students.

Nāku noa, nā

John O’Neill, PhD

Professor of Teacher Education

Read the letter to the Minister - The effects of class size on teaching and learning

PPTA class size webpage

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The New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) remembers Phil Capper, a PPTA member, friend and colleague. Kevin Bunker PPTA General Secretary spoke at Phil Capper's funeral on Wednesday 9 November. His tribute follows:

"It was with great sadness that we heard that Phil had died on Wednesday 2 November on a return flight from Christchurch.

Phil was an active member of PPTA from the day he began teaching at Spotswood College in 1968 after emigrating from the UK.  He served as Branch Chair at Palmerston North Boys’ High, Inangahua College and Greymouth High.  In 1978 he was elected as an executive member for Nelson-Marlborough-West Coast, having served as the West Coast regional chair prior to that.

In 1979 Phil joined the staff of PPTA responsible for curriculum, assessment and political liaison. He also had responsibilities for multicultural issues and sex equality; which, as a “Pomey bloke”, he thought to be somewhat ironic.

Phil was a true thinker on educational matters and did seminal work on what was called “The Jagged Edge” – the transitions from formal schooling to further education, training and work; stuff that is still pertinent today.  He also helped analyse the ‘Tomorrows’ Schools’ reforms, particularly regarding their impact upon teaching and learning and upon the quality of New Zealand’s public education system.  This analysis enabled PPTA and members to focus on those issues which would maintain cohesion and direction within a system that would otherwise have seen schools “elevated” to the status of corner dairies.  The Shared Decision Making Project in 1991, which was PPTA’s response to the increased focus on managerialism that was fast becoming a “Tomorrow’s Schools” by-product, is but one example of Phil’s capacity to identify problems and posit solutions in the interests of a better education system for New Zealand.

He left PPTA in 1994 to form his own company WEB Research, with its focus on work, education and business.

Phil’s keen humour and his acute observations of the absurd can be found in Nuncle’s Curiosities column which he wrote for PPTA News from 1980-1991.

Phil will be missed by all of us.

The New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) suggests an effective way of managing student and teacher assessment workload would be to limit the number of credits offered.

This should take into account the abilities of the class but on average a realistic number of credits to offer would be 13-18 per course, based on assumption of about four hours per week contact time over about 33 weeks, plus some homework time.

18 reasons for 18 credits

1. 5 subjects X 18 credits = 90 = plenty
2. 6 subjects X 18 credits = 108 = heaps!
3. Teachers can teach more and summatively assess less
4. Course endorsement and certificate endorsement can become the priority, ie quality over quantity - this benefits students and – dare we say it – league tables
5. Fewer scheduled assessments means increased opportunities to differentiate programmes of teaching and learning
6. Limiting credits means students have fewer chances to pick and choose what assessments they will opt out of
7. Fewer credits may mean there is more likelihood of being able to offer students a reassessment opportunity
8. Less assessment may provide more time for innovations to teaching and learning programmes
9. Fewer assessments may enable students with challenges to benefit from more teaching time, and for more able students to tackle the excellence criteria
10. Limiting summative assessments across the school may offer more opportunities for cross-subject collaboration
11. Limiting credits helps students manage their assessment load
12. The revised assessment matrices allow for curriculum coverage with 18 credits
13. Limits and helps to manage teachers’ marking loads
14. Less data entry
15. Less paperwork
16. Teachers’ moderation workload is (somewhat) addressed
17. Staff agreeing to a credit maximum should help level the playing field across subjects
18. Helps to manage the workload of the principal’s nominee!

You may also be interested in these 2010 PPTA conference papers:

Building on Excellence: How to make a good schooling system even better

Building on Excellence - summary and conference recommendations

NCEA Internal Assessment: A harder job than professional marking!

NCEA Internal Assessment - summary and conference recommendations

A New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) selection of prescriptions from the Vote Education Budget 2010 briefing papers published on the New Zealand Treasury website.

Vote Education - Prescription excerpts

Treasury has returned to all the policy prescriptions of the 1990s, bulk funding, performance pay, privatization and cost cutting and there is some evidence that the Minister of Finance supports the Treasury education agenda.

In many of the briefing papers there are more sections with deletions than text especially in relation to negotiations.

We are asking the Ombudsman to review some of the restrictions that are justified by a need to “protect the confidentiality of advice given by officials.”

Treasury briefing papers for the 2010 budget