Small Classes Mean Big Lessons

Small classes are magic. Just ask Bromley's teachers - and students!

You don't have to pore over the studies published by the US Department of Education to confirm the fact that academic classes with small numbers of students tend to be more productive than their larger counterparts. In fact, you don't really need to do any research at all. You just need to ask.

At Bromley Brook, for example, the average class size is eight to ten girls - a number that makes it easy to adapt lessons, assignments and teaching practices to students' particular learning styles - an almost impossible feat in groups of more than twelve, explains Bromley's academic director Laura Mack.

Better yet, the below-average class size fosters a learning environment that's focused on participation, giving each student the opportunity to become actively engaged in her own learning - an experience that in turn helps each girl develop a sense of personal responsibility for the progress of her education.

Like Mack, Colleen Balch, head of the school's science department, also enjoys the small class advantage, especially when it comes to taking the classroom out into the community for assignments, field labs and investigative projects. According to Balch, small class sizes, strong academic expectations and an emphasis on the connection between science and community gives Bromley girls a refreshed sense of what science is - and what it can do. It also stimulates their involvement in a subject often stereotyped as a boys-only topic (see Getting Girls Involved in Math, Science and Computer Science).

But the magic of the small classroom is best articulated by the students themselves:

"[At Bromley] you get lots of attention and extra help is always available," says Sarah*. "I came from a public school where there were forty students in each class. We learned at such a fast pace and my questions didn't always get answered. The small classes here make it easier for me to retain information, and I can take the time I need to understand each topic."

Small class size is essential to giving each girl the time, space and support she needs to realize her own learning potential, explains Mack. And it's also a vital means of helping girls previously jaded by their academic experiences redefine their personal and academic focus - recognizing or re-discovering their abilities along the way.

Small classes and caring teachers have certainly changed the way I learn, says Kate. "When I came here, I hated math, but now my teacher is really supportive and [the small class] makes it easier to focus."

At Bromley the worry of a lot of outside influences and the pressure of a big classroom is taken away, agrees Sarah. "The teachers here are the best I've ever encountered. At home, I didn't care about the things that were going to affect the rest of my life. At Bromley it's a lot easier to focus on my education and on the things that matter."

*Names have been changed to protect students' identities

Source: "Class Size and Students at Risk: What is Known?...What is Next?" US Department of Education, April 1998. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ClassSize/academic.html, accessed 10.4.05