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Re:Evidence suggests that returning to in person school incr... by credit_guy on Monday January 02, 2023 @09:38AM (#34218290)
> understaffed

Bingo.

There's a lot of dubious research that shows that the quality of education is not related to the student-to-teacher ratio. It flies against common sense, but people in power like to give it credence, since it's budget-friendly. The funny thing is that education budgets in the US are already very large. I don't know how the money is spent, but it's not spent on lowering that ratio.

If people need a proof that fewer students per teacher result in better outcomes, they just need to compare public and private schools.

Re:Evidence suggests that returning to in person school incr... by cafard on Monday January 02, 2023 @11:02AM (#34219366)
I'm in favor of smaller classes, but still. In private schools, a teacher can count on the parents' backing. In private schools, the teacher can count on nearly all kids coming from stable, economically secure families. If worst comes to worst, a private school can expel a kid who is causing problems.
Re:Evidence suggests that returning to in person school incr... by InitialLastName on Monday January 02, 2023 @12:05PM (#34220328)
> If worst comes to worst, a private school can expel a kid who is causing problems.

Even deeper bingo.

In the first order, it's absurd how much better you can make your performance at a task look if you get to not count the times you dropped the hard cases.

For a second-order effect, the students who cause problems degrade the educational effectiveness of the entire classroom, so eliminating them improves performance for the rest of the students.

Unfortunately (for public schools re. their comparisons to private schools), our society demands that a cursory attempt be made to provide educational opportunities for _all_ of the children.

Re:Evidence suggests that returning to in person school incr... by michael1999 on Thursday January 12, 2023 @07:29AM (#34352517)
This is the problem with all comparisons between government programs and private action. Private players can skip the hard bits. Government must be universal.