Resolution on Class Size

June 2026 

Campuses throughout the SUNY system should cap first-year writing courses – and wherever possible, introductory writing-intensive courses across the curriculum – at or below 19. This is in keeping with the guidelines on class size issued by the National Council of Teachers of English, which stipulate that “No more than 20 students should be permitted in any writing class” and that “Ideally, classes should be limited to 15” (NCTE). As enrollment caps in first-year writing and writing-intensive courses creep above this number, the educational experience of students and the quality of instruction is quickly and significantly diminished.

Background 

The importance of small class sizes in first-year writing courses has long been widely recognized. Not only is teaching writing famously labor-intensive, requiring long hours of reading, grading, and conferencing, but student-writers develop far more effectively when they work with teacher-mentors who are able to read their work closely and offer meaningful formative feedback. Additionally, the collegial dialogue that’s built among peers in writing classes of a manageable size supports students’ growth as writers and confidence in the writing process. These are classroom features that large enrollments make effectively impossible. First-year writing courses that foster these kinds of relationships also help students see themselves as members of the academic community, developing a sense of intellectual identity and purpose. This sense of belonging is crucial for student retention, persistence, and engagement, as argued by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Small introductory courses, which give students a chance to articulate ideas that matter to them as part of a supportive community of fellow writers, engage those students intellectually and ultimately help keep them in school. 

Alice Horning’s much-cited “The Definitive Article on Class Size” surveyed and synthesized the existing research on this issue exhaustively in 2007. She argued persuasively that small first-year writing classes ultimately prove more cost effective for institutions, both since they attract prospective students (29) and since students who feel successful and supported are likely to continue in school and complete their degrees (25-8). She concludes that “Greater engagement and involvement is the key to greater retention, and these goals can best be achieved through smaller writing classes” (27). Horning cites a range of studies in the process, including Alexander Astin’s What Matters in College?: Four Critical Years Revisited (1993), which on the basis of information gathered from 20,000 students and 25,000 faculty members at 200 institutions, concluded that “a low student-faculty ratio has a positive impact on student satisfaction in terms of relationships, quality of teaching and on virtually all other aspects of students’ experience,” including “whether students finish their degrees” (12). Horning also cites Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds (2001), in which, following more than 1,600 interviews with undergraduates across more than twenty colleges and universities of different sizes and types, Richard J. Light testifies that “student after student brings up the importance of class size in his or her academic development” (qtd. in Horning, 14-15). Recent scholarship focused on higher education staffing and enrollment policy more generally, outside Writing Studies, echoes these conclusions about student learning (Diette and Raghav), outcomes (Chapman and Ludlow), and retention (Bettinger and Long). 

The history of class size in first-year writing courses over the last thirty-five years, however, has more to do with economics than with pedagogy. American colleges and universities were given a strong institutional incentive to limit course caps in 1994, when U.S. News and World Report added class size to its criteria for college rankings. As a result, enrollment caps in required first-year writing courses on most campuses were set at or as close to 19 as possible, in keeping with both the counsel of professional organizations in the field and the consistent conclusions of years of research on the issue. But much of this incentive for institutions to keep enrollments under 20 vanished in 2023, when U.S. News and World Report stopped considering class size in its rankings, a development coinciding with fiscal pressures created by falling enrollments during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Still, class size remains a key selling point in college recruitment initiatives, as enrollment managers clearly recognize its continued importance to prospective students; regardless of an institution’s overall size or student-faculty ratios, small courses are regularly emphasized in publicity materials and campus tours. 

We believe strongly that it is in the best interests of both students and the SUNY system to uphold a commitment to enrollment caps that keep faith with the traditional emphasis on small-group instruction in first-year writing. Enrollment caps above 19 significantly inhibit the ability of faculty members in first-year writing courses to offer close readings of student work and provide the sort of individualized mentorship of student-writers that makes writers improve. This is especially true if those faculty members carry multiple sections, as many teaching first-year writing do, often in contingent roles on more than one campus. Student-writers do better in small classes taught by faculty members who know not only their names but their habits of mind and intellectual predispositions – pedagogical circumstances that result not only in enhanced student learning but in stronger retention rates. Particularly at a moment when increasing numbers of students are being persuaded that narrowly imagined, vocationally focused training programs are a better investment than traditional forms of higher education (see Tough and Sanchez), close work with faculty who help them develop and articulate ideas important to them is crucial in helping first-year students recognize the benefits of college in general. 

Resolution 

As such, the SUNY Council on Writing resolves that campuses throughout the SUNY system should work to cap first-year writing courses – and wherever possible, all introductory writing-intensive courses across the curriculum – at or below 19. This is in keeping with the guidelines on class size issued by the National Council of Teachers of English, which stipulate that “No more than 20 students should be permitted in any writing class.  Ideally, classes should be limited to 15” (NCTE) As enrollment caps in first-year writing and writing-intensive courses creep above this number, the educational experience of students and the quality of instruction is quickly and significantly diminished. Too many students make it impossible for instructors to read the work of their students closely, to function as mentors, and to set up the sort of supportive workshop environments that enable an effective writing and revision process. 

Works Cited 

Bettinger, Eric P., and Bridget Terry Long. “Mass Instruction or Higher Learning? The Impact of College Class Size on Student Retention and Graduation.” Education Finance and Policy, vol. 13, no. 1, 2018, pp. 97–118. Accessed 12 July 2025. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/90017056.

Chapman, Lauren, and Larry Ludlow. “Can Downsizing College Class Sizes Augment Student Outcomes? An Investigation of the Effects of Class Size on Student Learning.” The Journal of General Education, vol. 59, no. 2, 2010, pp. 105–23. Accessed 12 July 2025. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/ jgeneeduc.59.2.0105.

Diette, Timothy M., and Manu Raghav. “Class Size Matters: Heterogeneous Effects of Larger Classes on College Student Learning.” Eastern Economic Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, 2015, pp. 273–83. Accessed 12 July 2025.  JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24693708.

Horning, Alice. “The Definitive Article on Class Size.” WPA: Writing Program Administration. Volume 31, Numbers 1-2, Fall/Winter 2007, 11-34. https://www.classsizematters.org/ wp-content/uploads/2012/11/31n1-2horning.pdf 

Sanchez, Olivia. “Trade programs — unlike other areas of higher education — are in hot demand.” Hechinger Report. 17 April, 2023. Accessed 15 April, 2025. https://hechingerreport.org/trade-programs-unlike-other-areas-of-higher-education-are-in-hot-demand/ 

Tough, Paul. “Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?” New York Times Magazine. 5 September, 2023. Accessed 15 April, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/magazine/College-worth-price.html.

Reviewed by membership and ratified by Executive Board, 6/23/26