Class Size, Funding and Academic Performance

Available data indicate that academic performance among students in the United States has in many cases remained unchanged or has been declining over several decades despite concerted efforts at the state and federal levels in improve performance. With regard to public schools, the decline is commonly attributed to large class size and insufficient funding. Although numerous studies have examined funding and class size and their influence on student performance, many of these investigations did not consider the available longitudinal data. Consequently, they fail to provide a clear examination of both funding and class size effects. Close examination of these data from the US Department of Education, however, shows no significant funding or class-size effect. The present study involved data mining the vast store of education research produced at the US Department of Education to examine the role of class size and funding on public education.