Self-study
Editorial: A proposed new law would limit elementary school class sizes to a maximum of 20 students. ████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ █ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ████████████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████████
Summary
Most parents argue that making classes smaller allows teachers to devote more time to each student, which will make students more engaged in the learning process.
Researchers argue that the parents’ argument is questionable — in other words, that making classes smaller will not necessary make students more engaged in the learning process.
Why do the researchers believe this?
Because in a study of schools that had recently made class sizes smaller, students’ average grades stayed the same.
Notable Assumptions
The researchers assume that students’ grades are indicative of the level of their engagement in the learning process.
14.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████████
a
The only schools ███████████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████
Not necessary, because even if other schools can be appropriate for study, that doesn’t change the fact that the researchers conducted a study and found certain results. They are allowed to interpret those results as supportive of a conclusion, even if there were other schools they could have studied. In any case, we’re not told the kind of schools that were part of the study, so we have no reason to think that the schools were limited only to large elementary schools.
b
Teachers generally devote ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ █ ██████
Not necessary, because even if teachers devote different amounts of attention to different students, it can still be the case that the average amount of time teachers spend with students increases as class size goes down.
c
Reductions in class ████ █████ ████ ███████ █ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████████
Not necessary, because the number of teachers isn’t relevant to the reasoning. In any case, it would make sense for a reduction in class sizes to be require MORE teachers, not fewer.
d
Degree of student ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███████
Necessary, because if this were not true — if the level of engagement in the learning process does NOT correlate well with students’ average grades — then the fact students’ grades didn’t change in the study would not support a conclusion about the level of the students’ engagement.
e
Parental support for ███ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
Not necessary, because the reason parents support the law is irrelevant to the researchers’ argument. The researchers’ argument is based on a study, not on why parents support the law.