E C O N O M I C R E P O R T O F T H E P R E S I D E N T

Class Size Reduction. Average class size in the United States declined from29 in 1961 to 24 in 1991. Despite this improvement, however, many parentsand educators believe class sizes are still too large. There is also substantialvariation in class size, with many students still being taught in classes withmore than 30 students. Smaller classes allow teachers to interact more witheach student and to tailor instruction to that student’s needs, and they allowstudents to participate more in class discussions. These benefits can booststudents’ academic performance. In Tennessee’s Project STAR, for example, agroup of students from kindergarten through third grade were randomlyassigned to either regular-sized classes (22 to 25 students) or smaller classes(13 to 17 students). Over 11,000 students in 79 schools eventually participatedin the program. Results show that students in smaller classes learnedmore in the first year of the program than did students in larger classes, andthat these gains were maintained as these children continued in smallerclasses in subsequent years. Some researchers have argued that children get aone-time gain from a reduction in class size, and that this gain is maintainedin later years whether or not they remain in smaller classes.In his 1999 State of the Union Address, the President proposed the first-evernationwide effort to reduce class size in the early grades. The Congress passedthe proposed legislation in 1999. School districts around the Nation received atotal of $1.3 billion to enable them to recruit, hire, and train new, qualifiedteachers for the 2000-2001 school year. This was the first installment of a 7-yearinitiative to help schools hire 100,000 new teachers and reduce class size in the152 | Economic Report of the President