Ontario's primary class size reduction initiative

Through a contribution agreement with the Ministry of Education, the Canadian Education Association contracted with a team of researchers from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2007 and 2008 to conduct the study that resulted in this report. [...] The report is based on reviews of the research on class size reduction, analyses of statistical data collected by the Ministry of Education over a five-year period, and research across the province in eight school boards, 24 schools and 84 classrooms. [...] Some of the most robust research findings about educational reform emphasize the importance of the very factors that are under-specified in the literature on class size reduction: what variations across students, teachers, schools and school systems might matter; the ways resources and other forms of capacity influence the quality and magnitude of impact of policy initiatives; and the relative coh [...] The three factors identified early in the report—variation within and across individuals, groups and settings; resource capacity; and policy coherence—underpin the identification of the following further considerations. [...] Research literature on class size reduction The literature on class size reduction covers a lot of ground but can be clustered according to the questions it tries to answer and the methods used to conduct the research.