It seems relevant that class size is one of the factors used to generate the U.S. News & World Report college rankings – and among those factors, it’s one of the easier ones to game (see, e.g., this report on how Columbia manipulated their ranking, summarized by Andrew Gelman here). I’d bet the trend towards more, smaller classes is driven at least in part by competition to keep up in the rankings.
It seems relevant that class size is one of the factors used to generate the U.S. News & World Report college rankings – and among those factors, it’s one of the easier ones to game (see, e.g., this report on how Columbia manipulated their ranking, summarized by Andrew Gelman here). I’d bet the trend towards more, smaller classes is driven at least in part by competition to keep up in the rankings.