NEWS | October 2009 - all articles

This page includes all articles in the October issue of NEWS. Return to summary or go to the NEWS archive.

Keeping it small: why class size matters
Gates scholarships let students think big
Briefs

Keeping it small: why class size matters

Ashley Abbate (on right) with a professor and another student

Ashley Abbate had her pick of colleges, but one of the reasons she chose Augsburg College was for the college’s small classes. "There were about 25 students in my high school classes and I wanted something even smaller," she said. Her desire to know her teachers and have  ample opportunities to speak in class discussions made Augsburg — with an average undergraduate class size of 15 students — a good choice for her.

In K-12 discussions of students’ learning environments, it’s common to hear the term "student-teacher ratio." The ratio is determined by dividing the total number of teaching professionals (including art, music and physical education teachers) into the total student enrollment in a school or district. Although student-teacher ratio is often used interchangeably with class size, class size actually represents the number of students who regularly attend a teacher’s classroom. The assumption is often made by the general public that lower student-teacher ratios and lower class sizes provide better academic environments for teachers and students.

One of the most well-known studies to determine whether student achievement would increase with smaller class sizes was conducted in 1990 by the state of Tennessee. Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) provided evidence that smaller class sizes for kindergarten through third graders resulted in significant academic gains, especially for minority students. A number of other studies have investigated the relationship between small class size and student learning, sparking a debate in the education and research communities. While Project STAR continues to stand as an important piece of research, some argue that there are other factors associated with academic achievement, and simply reducing the class size for children in early elementary grades without considering these other factors will be very expensive and may not lead to increased academic achievement. 

An issue in college too
Should there be the same level of interest and concern in student-faculty ratios at the postsecondary level? Does matter if an 18-year-old college freshman is in an introductory college course with hundreds of other students — or a seminar with a dozen?

The National Survey of Student Engagement, designed to query undergraduates about their educational experiences, has identified student-faculty interaction as an important predictor of success in college. Specifically, a student’s ability to discuss class assignments and career plans with instructors, receive prompt feedback, and have an opportunity to work on a research project with faculty can directly impact the overall educational experience.

Another indicator that it is important — at least to consumers — comes from a review of college ranking systems. For example, U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges and universities based on several measures of quality, including student-faculty ratio and class size. A lower student-faculty ratio and lower class size score a higher quality rating.

The value of small undergraduate classes to our alums also was investigated by the Minnesota Private College Research Foundation. Findings from Comparing Results 2004: Alumni Perspectives on College highlight the importance of small class size, with 90% of graduates indicating that they benefited from small classes.

Minnesota’s Private Colleges are committed to offering students access to faculty and a small group setting in which to learn. Our institutions average a student-faculty ratio of 13 to 1; most classes have fewer than 20 students.

Clearly student-faculty ratios matter to students like Abbate. "It’s easier for me to learn from others in my class and for me to help others learn in small group settings with our professors. It’s like having a community in our classroom."

Gates scholarships let students think big

Sheng Yang

As a senior at Robbinsdale-Armstrong High School, Sheng Yang participated in Admission Possible, a program that helps promising, low-income students get into college. Her Admission Possible coach encouraged her to apply for a Gates Millennium Scholarship (GMS) and the urging paid off big time. Now a sophomore at Hamline University, Yang is receiving about $15,000 this year — the amount not covered by grants and scholarships from Hamline and other sources. In essence, her education is paid for.

“My Admission Possible coach really pushed me to do the application, even though it’s a lot of work. I’m now pushing my sister to do it; you never know if you’ll get it,” Yang said. Her family is very proud, but she acknowledges that the pride comes with high expectations. She plans to major in anthropology or biology and is especially looking forward to participating next fall in an exchange program to Chile. She’s pleased that her Gates scholarship might also cover study abroad expenses.

College for free
The Gates program is in its 10th year of giving good-through-graduation college scholarships to 1,000 students from low-income families each year. The scholarships are spread among students from different ethnicities and regions and can be used at the colleges or universities of the recipients’ choice.

In its 10-year history, 195 scholars have attended a Minnesota institution, according to Carlos Adrian, GMS research analyst. Of those, 65 chose one of Minnesota's Private Colleges. (See additional statistics at the end of the story.)

When applying for the Gates, students need to be incredibly focused, said Elyse Gordon, an Admission Possible AmeriCorps coach. “It requires seven essays and two recommendations. Students can be very intimidated by the scholarship because so few people win every year, but they are motivated by the prospect of going to college completely for free,” she said.

Setup for success

Tiffany Vang

The Gates scholarship attracts a lot of attention at St. Paul’s Arlington High School, with its large immigrant population, according to Tiffany Vang, now a first-year student at the College of Saint Benedict. Vang said the essays were actually quite easy for her to do and helped her articulate her experiences and goals. But Vang had almost given up hope of winning. “Then I discovered the envelope,” she said. “It had been sitting on a table for three days, but my Mom didn’t know what it was.” The scholarship will pay for costs that Vang can’t cover — up to $15,000 per year.

Saint Ben’s has proven to be a good choice for Vang. “Everybody is lively and confident here; I feel at home and fit in.” She is interested in communications and political science and dreams of being a professor some day — after a stint in the Peace Corps in India. Since Gates scholarships also cover graduate school, she hopes to receive continued funding for an advanced degree. “My brothers tease me about being too good for them now, but they’re very proud,” she said.

Charles Vang helps make purple sticky rice at the event, "In the Kitchen with Ua Ke." Ua Ke is the Hmong awareness organization at Macalester College.

A future community leader
Charles Vang, who also happens to be Hmong (though the Gates scholarships are distributed evenly among all ethnicities), is in his senior year at Macalester College. Again, it was an Admission Possible coach who suggested he apply for a Gates scholarship. “I had a decent GPA, okay ACT scores and was very active in high school,” he said. “The scholarship was a good fit for me.” Vang chose Macalester for its strong academics and community service opportunities. He also wanted to be near home to maintain Hmong traditions with family and friends.

One of Vang’s goals is to make relationships better in his communities. As a member of Ua Ke (the Hmong awareness organization at Macalester), he collaborated with a local high school to bring Asian students to campus. “The best part was seeing their excitement; even though it was early in the morning, they were smiling and laughing,” he said.

Vang’s commitment to serving the community has also influenced his decision to attend medical school, a career path validated by his participation in the Minnesota’s Future Doctors program. By volunteering in hospitals and clinics and shadowing physicians he received good exposure to the field. “It was real helpful for deciding that being a physician was a good fit for me,” he said. Unfortunately, Vang’s Gates scholarship won’t extend to medical school since professional degree expenses aren’t covered.

Producing more college grads
The Gates program increases the number of outstanding minority and low-income students attending college — and helps ensure that they graduate (almost 80% do). According to Margot Tyler, senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, that outcome is in line with a “national imperative” to double the number of students graduating from American colleges. “The GMS model, providing students with both financial assistance and academic and leadership mentoring and support, has proven to be an effective way to meet that challenge,” she said.

Minnesota families can find out more about the Gates scholarship and application process at a scholarship information night on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Briefs

• Carleton College and Macalester College were among 26 schools nationwide to score an A- on a national report card that measures colleges' sustainability efforts. A recent Star Tribune editorial on green building projects at Macalester and St. Olaf College noted a host of sustainability efforts from all our colleges, concluding that “where these schools lead, others follow.”
• The new report, Civic Responsibility: What Is the Campus Climate for Learning? suggests a gap between campus aspirations and the actual experiences of many students. Campus activities shown to foster students’ civic engagement include community service opportunities, campus life activities and courses where community involvement is required.
• Trends in College Pricing 2009, an annual report from the College Board, shows that tuition and fees at four-year public institutions rose 6.5% this year, compared to 4.4% at private nonprofit institutions. A companion report, Trends in Student Aid 2009, found that about two-thirds of full-time undergraduates receive grant aid.
• In the latest newsletter from ThreeSixty, a teen journalism program sponsored by the University of St. Thomas, find out how teens responded to President Obama’s challenge to take school seriously — and how a Robbinsdale principal separated students by race to expose the differences in test scores.