This document discusses a study examining the interaction between class size, formative feedback, and student achievement. The study found that smaller class sizes allowed teachers to provide more frequent formative feedback to students. It also found that for students who received frequent formative feedback, lower achieving students in 4th grade showed greater improvement in achievement by 6th grade compared to lower achieving students who received less frequent feedback. The results suggest that smaller class sizes enabling more formative feedback can help improve achievement growth for lower performing students over time.

1. Class-size and
Standard-based Assessment
Formative Feedback Interaction
on Academic Achievement
Change
Koyo Yamamori
Senior Researcher of Educational Psychology
National Institute for Educational Policy Research,
Japan

2. Lecture Outline
• Japanese system
• Classroom assessment
• Class size standard
• Overview of previous studies about class size
• Class size puzzle
• Individual difference in class size effect
• Presenter’s recent study about class size
• Class-size and standard-based assessment formative feedback
interaction on academic achievement change

3. Japanese system

4. Japanese system
Classroom Assessment
4
National Level
4 viewpoints provided
Conation
（関心・意欲・態度）
Problem solving thought
（思考・判断・表現）
Skills and Strategies
（技能）
Factual Knowledge
（知識・理解）
Classroom Level
Set by teachers
Referring both national level
viewpoint intent and lesson content
Class-specific standards（規準）
Scoring guideline（基準）
Class-specific standards（規準）
Scoring guideline（基準）
Class-specific standards（規準）
Scoring guideline（基準）
Class-specific standards（規準）
Scoring guideline（基準）

5. Japanese system
Class size: Features
• Students are assigned to homerooms.
• Members of the homeroom remain the same over several years.
• Students spend most of the time together all year round.
5
Academic Year Starts Academic Year Ends

6. Japanese system
Class size: Features
6
Morning Greeting
Afternoon Lesson
• Classroom as the place of both academic learning and daily life.
• Homeroom teacher have the responsibilities for both enhancing
academic achievement and developing social-emotional skills.

7. Japanese system
Class size: Legal standards
7
1957 (CS>50)
75 students assigned
in this picture
1991 (CS=40)

8. Class-size research

9. Class-size research
Effect on student achievement
• Experimental study: STAR Project
• Comparing small-size class (n~15), regular-size
class(n~25) with a full-time teacher’s aide, and regular-
size class.
• Small-size class was advantageous for pupils’
achievement.
• Other investigative studies reported similar findings (US,
England, Australia, etc.)
9

10. Class-size research
Class-size puzzle
• Inconsistency of study findings
• Not all class-size studies showed the advantage of small
class size in relation to students’ academic achievement.
• Hanushek (1999) : 14% of the studies showed positive
effects of smaller Pupil-Teacher Ratio(PTR)s, another 14%
indicated the opposite result and 72% indicated no
contribution of smaller PTRs.
• These inconsistency is called “Class-size puzzle”
10

11. Class-size research
Individual differences in class-size effect
• Class-size puzzle seems to come from students’ individual
difference.
• Prior achievement seems to be one of the moderators of class-
size effect (Blatchford, Bassett, Goldstein, and Martin, 2003;
Nye and Hedges, 2002)
11
Class size Achievement
Prior Achievement

12. Class-size research
Student engagement and teacher behavior
12
Student engagement
Smaller class
• Better classroom attitude
• Less disruptive behavior
• More engagement
Teacher behavior
• Less dealing with negative
pupil behavior
• More individual instructions
(Bateman, 2002; Blatchford, 2003; Cahen et al., 2002)
(Blatchford et al., 2011; Stasz and Stecher, 2000)

13. Class-size research
Formative assessment
• Effective feedback information should contain not so much right or
wrong but the difference between goals and current levels of
achievement (Sadler, 1989)
13
Smaller class
Teacher behavior
• Less dealing with negative
pupil behavior
• More individual instructions
AND
Formative assessment /
feedback ?
• Formative assessment /
feedback have larger effect
(Kluger and DeNisi, 1996;
Hattie and Timperley, 2007).

14. Class-size research
Aptitude-Treatment Interaction
• Class-size puzzle is attributed to
ATI.
• The effects of teaching depends
on individual differences of
students.
• We need to be mindful of
students’ individual differences,
teachers’ behaviors, and the
interaction between teaching
strategies and students’
individual differences.
14
(Cronbach & Snow, 1977)

15. Class-size and formative feedback
interaction on academic
achievement change

16. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Aim of the study
• Does smaller class enhance frequent formative feedback by teachers?
• Does smaller class and formative feedback interaction compensate lower
attainers’ academic achievement?
16
Prior Achievement
Subsequent
Achievement
Smaller class ×
Formative feedback

17. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Participants
• 1,672 students, in the
4th grade at the first
measurement point.
• From 50 public
elementary schools in
Yamagata prefecture.
17

18. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Measures
• Student level
• Panel data of individual students’ scores on norm-referenced standardized
test of social studies at two occasions (4th and 6th grades).
• Class level
• Questionnaire to indicate yearly implementation of both presenting clear
learning goals at the start of each instructional unit and implementing
individual feedback about the ability level relative to the goal at the end of a
unit.
• School level
• All participated school’s class-size
18

19. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Analytical strategy
• Three-level HLM
• Random-intercept and fandom-
slope model
• Do class-size, feedback
implementation, and these
interaction affect the intercept
and the slope of the regression
estimates subsequent (2 years
later) achievement by prior
achievement at student level?
19

20. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Results: Effect on feedback implementation
• The relationship between the class-size and “state achievement goal - provide
progress” formative feedback which teacher provided.
• The frequency of formative feedback in the 5th grade decreases as the number of
students in a class increases.
20

21. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Result: Effect on achievement change
• The relationship between prior achievement at the 4th grade and subsequent achievement at the 6th
grade.
• Diagram (a) on the left side shows the result of the students who received frequent formative feedback,
and diagram (b) on the right is the results of students who received less frequent or no formative
feedback.
21

22. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Discussions
22
Class-size: No main effectCS × FA interaction
Smaller class and formative feedback implementation improved
low attainers’ achievement over 2 years.

23. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Discussions
Teachers in smaller
classes are likely to
provide formative
feedback more
frequently.
23

24. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Discussions
Smaller classes allow
teachers to provide more
feedback for students.
24
The attainment of previously
lower achievers was
improved.

25. Conclusion

26. Conclusion
Power of standard-based assessment
• Formative feedback is one of effective interventions of
classroom learning.
• Standards should be needed when we conduct
effective formative feedback.
• The effect of standard-based assessment makes a
significant contribution to helping the students with low
achievement when conducted in small size classes.
26

27. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Class-size: Indispensable aspect
• “How many students in this classroom?” is the
indispensable aspect when we implement
standard-based formative feedback.
27

28. Class-size and formative feedback interaction
Effect on student achievement
• Instruction, learning, and assessment, all we do under the given
set of conditions.
• Effect of instruction, learning, and assessment, all comes from the
interaction between the given set of conditions and individual
differences among students.
28
n=30 n=40