Average college classroom size

Posted on Wednesday 17 March 2010

  • 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.


  • 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


  • 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 -- 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


  • Thank you for the five star rating and nice tip! --Bobbie7


  • 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


  • Very persistent and willing to continue research in order to thoroughly answer my question!


  • Hello again Nosoup4u, Thank you for accepting my answer and for your very informative clarification. What a great resource! Sincerely, Bobbie7


  • 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.







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    smith @ March 17, 2010 edit
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