DOCUMENT RESUME ED 455 220 SP 040 147 AUTHOR Lapsley, Daniel K.; Daytner, Katrina M. TITLE Indiana's "Class Size Reduction" Initiative: Teacher Perspectives on Training, Implementation and Pedagogy. SPONS AGENCY Indiana State Dept. of Education, Indianapolis. PUB DATE 2001-04-00 NOTE 26p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Seattle, WA, April 10-14, 2001). PUB TYPE Reports - Research (143) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Class Size; Grouping (Instructional Purposes); *Paraprofessional School Personnel; Primary Education; *Small Classes; Teacher Attitudes; *Teacher Student Ratio; Teaching Methods IDENTIFIERS Indiana; Project Primetime ABSTRACT Prime Time is a funding mechanism that allows Indiana school corporations to hire instructional assistants for K-3 classrooms with large enrollments. The goal is the establishment of a favorable student-teacher ratio. In the first evaluation of this program, researchers conducted a stratified random cluster survey of 680 K-3 teachers from across Indiana. In addition to soliciting descriptive information about teacher and aide characteristics, the researchers wanted to determine how teachers typically used aides, how often aides were present in eligible classrooms, and whether teachers with aides altered grouping and instructional practices. Results showed that the presence of instructional assistants was associated with certain teacher grouping and instructional practices. Aides were typically present every day in eligible Prime Time classrooms, although they were often shared among classrooms, making them unavailable for the entire instructional day in any given classroom. Teachers indicated that aides required them to greatly alter their teaching strategies in positive ways, and that Prime Time costs were well justified. The researchers conclude that the "Prime Time strategy" of providing teachers with aides may be as promising a way of encouraging pedagogical best practices as reducing class size. (Contains 15 tables.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.