Schools across the United States are facing budgetary pressures on a scale not seen in generations. Times of fiscal exigency force policymakers and education practitioners to pay more attention to the return on various categories of public investment in education. The sizes of the classes in which students are educated are often a focus of these…

Studied whether the presence of a teacher aide in the classroom has noticeable impact on student learning using data for more than 6,300 students in 79 Tennessee schools. Findings suggest that teachers' aides have little, if any, positive effects on student learning. Results also indicate that many aides are required to perform tasks for which…

Teacher aides have made a major contribution to educationally disadvantaged children in Tennessee. Title I directors recommend that: (1) the teacher aide program should be continued; (2) inservice training programs for teachers and aides should be coordinated; and (3) additional study on qualification and educational preparation of aides is…

This article reports the Project STAR interview study that examined changes in K-3 teacher perceptions after teaching for a year in small classes or regular classes with aides. Teachers believed small classes or aides changed teaching and learning. They became more effective and satisfied and provided more individual attention. (SM)

Pupils (N=1,755) in 232 elementary school classes in Tennessee participated in a 3-year longitudinal study of the effects of reduced class size on reading and mathematics performance. The small-class setting increased performance significantly in both mathematics and reading, and it had an especially strong impact in inner-city schools.…