Muzungu, I grew up in New Hampshire and went to public school, graduating high school in '87. Just under 20 students per classroom in elementary school. In high school, we sometimes had just over 20 students in popular or required classes. These figures are from memory. No guarantee my numbers are 100% accurate, but they are very close. New Hampshire at that time was known as having a very good education system. Perhaps that's still the case - I don't know. Regarding your "academic standards" comment, I don't know anything about that. I'm not an educator and I don't know what is meant by the term. I don't know how Alaska's "academic standards" compare to 40 years ago, nor how they are measured. But I stand by my view that it is a lot harder for a fourth grader to get as much help from the teacher in a class of 32 students than in one with with 22 students.