The effect of school size and class size on school preparedness

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to understand students’ school readiness as a function of student and teacher behaviors but also school size and class size using both linear and non-linear analytical approaches. Data came from 21,903 schools distributed across 80 countries as per the 2018 cohort of the PISA database. Results pointed to a preference for the Cusp model in that the relationship between school and class sizes with achievement proved to be best described by the non-linearity of the Cusp catastrophe model. The critical benchmarks were a school size of 801 students and a class size of 27 students for which increases beyond those thresholds were linked to nonlinearity and unpredictability in school readiness. For this reason, we suggest using the cusp catastrophe model from Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory (NDST) to understand more fully such complex phenomena.