What is the average classroom size for 4-year post-secondary
institutions? This just needs to be total enrollment for any given
class, not taking into account if there are separate sections. I.e. if
a class has 500 students, but it is broken up into 4 different
sections of 125, the #500 should be used in the calculation of average
class size, not the #125. |
Request for Question Clarification by
bobbie7-ga
on
16 Apr 2006 11:53 PDT
Hello again Nosoup4u,
Please let me know if the following information answers your question.
Thanks,
Bobbie7
CSU
"What is the average class size for my academic department (major)?
Summary: In the 2003/2004 Academic Year, there were a total of 3740
available Lecture class sections at CSU with a mean class size of 46
students. There were a total of 2043 lab sections available with a
mean class size of 21 students. Seven hundred fifty-nine recitation
sections were available with a mean class size of 30 students"
http://improvement.colostate.edu/resourceDetail.cfm?ID=93
---------------------------------------------------------
"What?s the average class size at Washington University?
The average class size at Washington University is 18 students.
More than 80 percent of the courses at Washington University have
class sizes between 1 and 24 students."
http://aisweb.wustl.edu/admissions/ua.nsf/3rd%20Level%20Pages_FAQ_FAQ_Stats.htm?OpenPage&charset=iso-8859-1#Size
---------------------------------------------------------
University of Oregon
Class size
Average class size 28
Median class size 21
http://admissions.uoregon.edu/profile.html
---------------------------------------------------------
University of Maryland
Robert H. Smith School of Business
"An average of 46 students were enrolled in a core class, while
elective courses had just 25 students on average."
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/98/top25/profile149.htm
---------------------------------------------------------
"What is the average class size at Ohio?s public colleges and universities?
The average undergraduate class size in fall 2001 was 18 for classes
meeting as labs and 27 for classes meeting as lectures. The
probability of an undergraduate student being enrolled in a class with
50 or more students is 9% for labs and 24% for lectures."
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:5lp2iGtxtnEJ:www.regents.state.oh.us/perfrpt/Chapter_08_PR_2002_cp.doc+average+university+class+size+%2220..500+students%22&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=22
---------------------------------------------------------
University of Washington
Average class size: All undergraduate classes: 34. First/second year:
42. Third/fourth year: 28.
http://admit.washington.edu/Numbers
|
Clarification of Question by
nosoup4u-ga
on
16 Apr 2006 20:34 PDT
Hello again bobbie7,
I was hoping for the national average for 4-year post-secondary
institutions. I presume that a random sampling of a certain number of
those institutions would result in a fairly accurate number
representing the national average. The question is, are the 6 that you
have listed below a random sample size significant enough to represent
the national average? I am not sure. Perhaps is this information that
the government monitors?
I think the information may be here, however I am having a hard time
navigating the site to find it: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/esn/n16a.asp
There it lists the average for G-7, 1991. I would like the average for
13-16, the most recent.
I will adjust the tip accordingly if you have to spend a lot more time
on this question.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
bobbie7-ga
on
16 Apr 2006 21:44 PDT
Nosoup4u,
Please let me know if the following information is more on target.
Class Size Numbers
"According to several sources from the California Community Colleges
Chancellor?s Office (1996, 1998) and other sources (Burstein, 1996),
the national community college class size average is 21. The
California Community College average has been a stable 27 for several
years, considerably larger for similar colleges in eight large industrial
states (18). Citrus College also has a stable class size average of 27
(Maas, 2000). For all of post secondary education, the average class
size is 32 (NCES, 2002)."
http://www.citruscollege.edu/research/reports/class_size_concerns.pdf
"On the other hand, a very recent attempt to calculate the average
class size of lower division classes at all institutions of higher
education in the US found that the average class size for those
classes was 28 students with only 10% of all those classes holding
more than 44 students."
http://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingresources/articles/classsize.html
Thanks,
Bobbie7
|
Clarification of Question by
nosoup4u-ga
on
18 Apr 2006 17:46 PDT
Hello Bobbie7,
Thank you for the second try at it. I will accept this as the answer
to my question.
It seemed the link (http://www.citruscollege.edu/research/reports/class_size_concerns.pdf)
that you provided stated the required information I was looking for -
'For all of post secondary education, the average class size is 32
(NCES, 2002).' However, since it referenced NCES, 2002 as the source I
needed to get the data first hand from NCES. I e-mailed them directly
and they sent me back an excel sheet containing the data. When I asked
them if it was posted on their site somewhere also they replied:
'It's better than that actually. The software used to generate the table is
on our website -- http://nces.ed.gov/das
If you're analytically inclined, you can use it to generate tables of your own.
It's our public use Data Analysis System (DAS). Just go to the DAS homepage --
<http://nces.ed.gov/das>
Select NSOPF:04 as the dataset using the pull-down menu on the right. For a
tutorial, please click on the User Help Center.'
As for the actual number, the article that referenced the data
construed it a bit. The average for-credit class size for public
4-year postsecondary schools is 32.7, however the Private nfp 4-year
is 24.4, the Public 2-year is 22.8, and the Private nfp 2-year is
24.0. Due to not knowing the weights of the different institutions
types, I am not able to determine the accurate average for 'all of
post secondary education,' however I can speculate that it may be
around 26 based on the non-weighted average of the four.
Also, just for clarification the last link you provided
(http://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingresources/articles/classsize.html)
had a disclaimer (in regards to the 44 student number) stating:
(This average is somewhat deceiving since the author did remove the
extreme class sizes from his statistics. For example, lecture classes
with less than 5 students or more than 150 were omitted from his
statistics.)
Well, I hope this clarifies it after all, and hopefully we have helped
other people out there looking for this same piece of information.
Thanks again,
nosoup4u
|
