A Study of Class Size Effects in English School Reception Year Classes

This article reviews the existing evidence on the relationship between class size and achievement for children in their Ž rst years of schooling. It then describes a large-scale longitudinal study of such children within English Local Education Authorities and presents results for achievement progress in literacy and mathematics during the reception year. Using a series of multilevel models, it is shown that there is a relationship with size of class, after various confounding factors have been allowed for, and that there are interactions between class size and initial achievement and between class size and entitlement to free school meals. It is argued that these results, especially the differential effects for different groups of children, could have important implications for educational policy.