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School size is an interesting aspect of educational organization and has been a major topic of discussion in the past decades, both in academia and in politics, for two reasons. First, school size could have an impact on operational costs. Increased size might reduce redundancy and allow more resources to be bundled together at the individual school. This, in turn, could lead to cost savings and lower per pupil spending in larger schools. Second, the effect of size on a school’s organizational structures or on the interactions among school members could have an impact on student achievement. Although costs and student achievement are considerations for schools worldwide, most evidence on the relationship between school size and per pupil spending or student achievement comes primarily from the United States. By attempting to identify the association between school size and student achievement within other countries, the analysis presented here tries to fill this gap. However, issues relating to public spending or per pupil costs will not be discussed in this context since that requires more detailed knowledge of the cost structure of each educational system and of each individual school. School Size and Student Achievement in TIMSS 2003 gabriela schütz 7 175 The author would like to thank Jens Ludwig, Joachim Winter, Ludger Wößmann, and participants at the Second International Research Conference of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement for helpful comments and discussions. Any errors are those of the author. All results and regressions can be obtained from the author at schuetz@ifo.de. 176 gabriela schütz Instead, the analysis focuses on the association between school size and student achievement as measured by the test scores obtained in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Although other school and student outcomes such as self-esteem, soft skills, and problem-solving competencies are certainly important, they are not discussed here since the focus of most countries’ educational systems is on teaching the core subjects rather than the aforementioned competencies. In addition, such outcomes are more difficult to measure, which would make international comparisons even more problematic. School size can be hypothesized to act upon student performance through several channels.1 One of the most important factors is the influence of size on the curriculum and courses offered. Larger schools with more students in each grade are in a better position to offer several different courses targeted at students ’ individual needs or preferences. This enables instruction to be organized around more homogeneous study groups. However, there is a drawback to tailoring courses and their contents too much to the students’ capabilities or preferences , since only a few students might want to elect the more demanding academic courses and thus might not acquire the necessary skills for a successful professional career. In this respect, the need for smaller schools to concentrate on the core curriculum might be an advantage even if it rules out the option to group pupils according to their abilities.2 Another channel through which school size might influence student learning is via the social interactions of the school members. Clearly, small schools offer better conditions for intensive social interactions between teachers and students as well as within these respective groups, thereby promoting a positive learning environment. On the other hand, larger schools can probably offer a greater number and variety of extracurricular activities. The participation of students in these activities can be seen as an important aspect of school life and might, via an increased sense of belonging, also act to foster student learning. The possible effects of these two channels suggest that potentially, in terms of student achievement, middle-sized schools would perform best. Larger schools might have the advantage of allowing the formation of more homogeneous study groups and offering courses that are better tailored to students’ needs. They also are likely to offer more extracurricular activities for their students . However, smaller schools might be better focused on the core curriculum and provide the advantage of quality of social interactions among their members. Given the advantages and disadvantages of small and large schools, it is possible that middle-sized schools can better balance these factors and that students in middle-sized schools therefore perform best. This kind of reasoning is in line with the results reported by Lee and Smith, which indicated that high schools enrolling between 600 and 900 students are most effective in [3.144.9.141] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 06:31...

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