Many argue schools that serve inner-city and rural children are in “crisis.” This paper
reviews the best available evidence on the effects of class size and school vouchers. Results from
the Tennessee STAR experiment suggest smaller class sizes improve achievement, particularly for
inner-city and minority children; results from the New York City voucher experiment and the
Milwaukee Parental Choice program suggest there may be small achievement gains in mathematics
for the African-American and Hispanic children who use vouchers. Although the reason of the
achievement gains is unknown, one candidate is the smaller class sizes in the private schools.