Class-size reduction doesn’t improve test scores?

For 50 years, I’ve predicted that test scores will continue to decline even when teacher-pupil ratios reach 1-to-1. Impossible? Not if we keep treating the symptom and not the problem. Ask any medical doctor how that works.

Every year we hear the same plea: More funding for smaller class sizes. How’s that working out?

I also predicted that charter schools would not be able to turn out students with higher test scores. Why? Because the concept of charter schools was itself grasping at the symptom.

There’s an old adage which holds that money talks and bull walks. Here’s my money.

I’ll bet $10,000 and give 10-to-1 odds that reducing class size will not halt the decline in test scores. The winnings go to charity. To all those begging for additional funding, I say put up or shut up. Here’s an easy $100K.

I might be wrong, but until Copernicus came along, everybody knew the Earth was flat.