Size Matters – In Science Class

To look for factors that influence the – well-documented – underperformance by women and underrepresented minorities in science, researchers from i.a. the University of Minnesota studies the correlation between class size and performance in science education: Do Small Classes in Higher Education Reduce Performance Gaps in STEM? Apparently, they assume a link between performance as a student with later performance as a scholar.

The found no correlation between class size and performance for underrepresented minorities. They did find such a correlation for women, in the sense that women underperformed on high-stakes exams in larger classes, but actually received higher scores on non-exam assessments.