Educator: Reducing class sizes in our school district would require hiring more teachers. However, there is already a...

Victoria on May 25, 2020

Hi @hkolon,

Happy to help!

This is a 'Strengthen with Necessary Premise' question. We are looking for the answer choice which, if negated, no longer allows the educator to draw their conclusion.

Let's start by going through the stimulus.

The educator concludes that reducing class sizes would probably not improve overall student achievement.

Why? Reducing class sizes would require hiring more teachers. However, the quality of education decreases when teachers are under qualified and there is already a shortage of qualified teachers in the region.

Note that the educator specifies the lack of qualified teachers in the region. The hiring pool would not be limited to teachers in the region as it is possible that some qualified teachers would move to the district to teach.

This undermines the educator's conclusion because it is also probable that reducing class sizes would attract qualified teachers, thereby improving overall student achievement as a result.

Answer choice (E) is correct because it negates the above possibility which would undermine the educator's argument. The educator can only properly draw their conclusion re overall student achievement if qualified teachers could not be persuaded to relocate to the district to teach.

Alternatively, answer choice (E) is correct because, if we negate it, the educator can no longer properly draw their conclusion.

Answer choice (A) is incorrect because it is not an assumption required by the educator's argument. The educator concludes that student achievement would not be improved by reducing class sizes, but they make no claims regarding the other possible impacts of this reduction.

Answer choice (B) is incorrect because the educator is discussing overall student achievement in the region, not the achievements of students in particular classes.

Answer choice (C) is incorrect because student values have no impact on the educator's conclusion.

Answer choice (D) is incorrect because it is simply a stronger version of a premise directly stated by the educator in their argument. Therefore, it is not an assumption.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.