The effect of smaller classes on infection-related school absence: evidence from the Project STAR randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

In an effort to reduce viral transmission, many schools reduced class sizes during the recent pandemic. Yet the effect of class size on transmission is unknown.

METHODS

We used data from Project STAR, a randomized controlled trial in which 10,816 Tennessee elementary students were assigned at random to smaller classes (13 to 17 students) or larger classes (22 to 26 students) in 1985-89. We merged Project STAR schools with data on local deaths from pneumonia and influenza in the 122 Cities Mortality Report System. Using mixed effects linear, Poisson, and negative binomial regression, we estimated the main effect of smaller classes on absence. We used an interaction to test whether the effect of small classes on absence was larger when and where community pneumonia and influenza prevalence was high.

RESULTS

Small classes reduced absence by 0.43 days/year (95% CI -0.06 to -0.80, p < 0.05), but small classes had no significant interaction with community pneumonia and influenza mortality (95% CI -0.27 to + 0.30, p > 0.90), indicating that the reduction in absence due to small classes was not larger when community disease prevalence was high.

CONCLUSION

Small classes reduced absence, but the reduction was not larger when disease prevalence was high, so the reduction in absence was not necessarily achieved by reducing infection. Small classes, by themselves, may not suffice to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.

Emergency remote teaching and students' academic performance in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive disruption in the way traditional higher education institutions deliver their courses. Unlike transitions from face-to-face teaching to blended, online or flipped classroom in the past, changes in emergency remote teaching -a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate remote delivery mode due to crisis circumstances- happen suddenly and in an unplanned way. This study analyzes the move to emergency remote teaching at the School of Telecommunication Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), and the impact of organizational aspects related to unplanned change, instruction-related variables -class size, synchronous/asynchronous delivery- and use of digital supporting technologies, on students' academic performance. Using quantitative data of academic records across all (N = 43) courses of a bachelor's degree programme in Telecommunication Engineering and qualitative data from a questionnaire delivered to all (N = 43) course coordinators, the research also compares the academic results of students during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of previous years. The results of this case study show an increase in students' academic performance in emergency remote teaching, and support the idea that organizational factors may contribute to successful implementation of emergency remote teaching; the analysis does not find differences across courses with different class sizes or delivery modes. The study further explores possible explanations for the results of the analysis, considering organizational, individual and instruction-related aspects.

Teachers' time utilisation and students' enrolment in school certificate examination: implication for school leadership

This study investigated the extent to which teachers' time utilisation influences students' enrolment in certificate examination and compared the realized teaching time by teachers in public and private secondary schools in Benin, Nigeria to draw the attention of school leadership to the importance of teachers' time utilisation to the attainment of educational goals. The survey design was employed to elicit data from three hundred and sixty randomly selected senior secondary school students from five public and five private senior schools. Questionnaire served as the data collection instrument and the data were subsequently analysed using Kolmogorov Smirnov test, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test. Results indicate that realised teaching time and time utilisation by the teachers in public secondary schools is significantly lower than what obtains in private secondary schools and significantly lower than the expected teaching time. The realised teaching time and time utilisation also varied significantly within the public and private secondary schools and between classes in public and private secondary schools. Lastly, class sizes were significantly large in uencthe public schools but generally small in the certificate classes, thus implying that teachers' time utilization has a significant impact on students' enrolment. The need for school leaders and administrators to ensure increased teachers' time utilisation for enhanced enrolment in certificate examinations was suggested, among others.

Comparison of NAPLEX pass rates for non-modifiable determinants of pharmacy programs in the United States

INTRODUCTION

Students consider numerous variables before applying to a doctor of pharmacy program. Some key non-modifiable variables may include program length, institution type, graduating class size, and pharmacy school grading system. The purpose of this study was to determine if there exists a difference in North American Pharmacists Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) performance based upon these variables.

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study using observational data. NAPLEX pass rates from 2015 to 2017 were obtained from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) website. Data for pharmacy programs were extracted from the program, Pharmacy College Application Service, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and NABP websites.

RESULTS

Based on each pharmacy program's performance on NAPLEX, variables with significantly higher pass rates were public institutions and those with graduating class sizes of 100 or more students.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study suggest that graduating class size of 100 or more students and public institutions were significant predictors of success on the NAPLEX. Lower pass rates in 2016 may be due to the examination changes implemented by NABP that year. It is possible that programs and students were not being adequately prepared for the changes made to the NAPLEX format. Although not statistically significant, there was a rise in pass rates between the years 2016 and 2017. Therefore, future studies such as this one should be performed to compare NAPLEX pass rates from 2017 forward.

Health Science students' evaluation of courses and Instructors: the effect of response rate and class size interaction

OBJECTIVE

This study aims at investigating the effect of response rate and class size interaction on students' evaluation of instructors and the courses offered at heath science colleges in Saudi Arabia.

METHODOLOGY

A retrospective study design was adapted to ascertain Course Evaluation Surveys (CES) conducted at the health science colleges of the University of Dammam [UOD] in the academic year 2013-2014. Accordingly, the CES data which was downloaded from an exclusive online application 'UDQUEST' which includes 337 different courses and 15,264 surveys were utilized in this study. Two-way analysis of variance was utilized to test whether there is any significant interaction between the class size and the response rate on the students' evaluation of courses and instructors.

RESULTS

The study showed that high response rate is required for student evaluation of instructors at Health Science colleges when the class size is small whereas a medium response rate is required for students' evaluation of courses. On the other hand, when the class size is medium, a medium or high response rate is needed for students' evaluation of both instructors and courses.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study recommend that the administrators of the health science colleges to be aware of the interpretation of students' evaluations of courses and instructors. The study also suggests that the interaction between response rate and class size is a very important factor that needs to be taken into consideration while interpreting the findings of the students' evaluation of instructors and courses.