Winning a National Merit Scholarship is a great honor. It's also a pathway to the top colleges and universities in America. And that's a route to the best jobs and the best salaries our country has to offer. Congratulations to all Colorado's high school graduates who are National Merit Scholars.

Among Colorado Academy's graduating seniors, a remarkable 12.5% received National Merit Scholarships. That is a heady record for the students and the school. What struck me is how important these students thought small class sizes were to them personally and to the quality of their education. The individual attention they received in classes of 15 or fewer students enabled them to learn, to mature and to excel. There is a critical lesson here for all of us. Let's look at some of the data.

A study in Tennessee looked at how small class sizes during Kindergarten through third grade affect student achievement. It found that classes of 15 to 17 kids in these early years improved student performance all the way through high school graduation. The state's Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) reported that students in small K-3 classes had better graduation rates, higher grade point averages and greater college enrollments than their fellow students in more populous classrooms.

Project STAR compared students in small classes with their peers in larger classes. The reduced class size was only for the first four years of school. After that, all students were in larger classes. Throughout their schooling, the small-class students continued to outperform their large-class peers. The findings were dramatic:

1. Students in small classes were more likely to go to college. They were more likely than their larger-class peers to take the college entrance exams. This was particularly true of African-American students. One researcher, Dr. Alan Krueger, reported that "Attendance in small classes appears to have cut the black-white gap in the probability of taking a college-entrance exam by more than half."

2. Small classes lead to higher graduation rates. Students in these classes were more likely to graduate on time, less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to graduate in the top 25% of their class.

3. Students in small classes had higher academic achievement. The STAR students were between 6 and 13 months ahead of their regular-class peers in math, reading and science in grades 4, 6 and 8. Researchers said that at least 3 years of small classes were necessary for the benefits to last and that these benefits actually increased from grade to grade.

4. Class size is not the student/teacher ratio, which is calculated by dividing the total number of students by the number of teachers in the school. It is the actual number of students in the classroom that matters.

We know intuitively that smaller classes will ensure our kids more individual attention. These studies simply back this up. We know that a solid grounding in the basic skills during the primary years will help all students achieve academically, no matter what their socio-economic circumstances. We also know that America's future well-being depends on the quality of education all our children receive. If teachers can give kids the time and individual attention each one needs to learn, our children will succeed. Small classes will go a long way towards making this happen.

There are certainly important problems to deal with if we are to provide children this best possible start. These include having enough qualified teachers and sufficient classrooms to accommodate small classes. But, the encouraging news is that big benefits can come from only a few years of reduced class-size. And that we can do. Twenty states have already mandated smaller classes. Colorado needs to join them.