Importance Of Project STAR In Education

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Imagine a classroom with only 4 students and one teacher, hard to believe, right? I was there and benefited greatly from it. I went to a private school called Shelton, with classes ranging from 2 to 13 students. This structure helped me and my classmates get the best experience for each subject. I went through subjects a lot faster than I would have at a public school with 30 or 35 students. My teachers were tools along with the other amenities we had in the class. I actually enjoyed class. For my other schools, I was in classes that ranged from 18 to 22 students, it was a little above the average class size. I felt stuck, trapped, and alone. I couldn’t really get all my work done in a class where half of the time, miniscule questions were …show more content…

What is Project STAR though? Project STAR stands for Steps to Achieving Resilience. The project is funded by the government to help research class environment and size. It was started in 1999 and ended in 2003 with the help of Early Childhood Care Center at the University of Oregon. Project STAR is used to the change the environment of the classroom. They use smaller classrooms to show improvement in skills for young children. They really emphasize on the importance of circle time activities and not advocating for constant independent work time. The teachers employed by Project STAR make sure to use all of their resources to make sure each student is getting the best experience in the classroom. It is also statistically proven Project STAR helped out with getting students back on track. Knowing that there is a gap in achievement for whites and minorities, Project STAR had over 12,000 students from over 300 schools participate in this study. There was a record number of the quarter minority students who had more of an achievement in the long run with the help of a structured classroom and smaller class sizes. There was a significant number of more minority students benefiting from reading classes from grades 1 to 3 by almost half. This shows how minorities do not have to fight the gap in achievement just because of their skin color or any other differences. (Raising Minority Academic Achievement pg.