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Smaller Class Sizes

Winter 2000 (v4#1)

Class Size Reduction has Finally Come to NYC!

By Leonie Haimson
Class Size Matters Campaign

News is beginning to trickle out about the first year of the most promising reform to hit New York City’s schools in at least a generation: class size reduction in the early grades. New data provided by the Board of Education reveals that about 950 new, smaller classes in grades K-3, averaging 20 students per class, have been created in approximately 530 schools–about 75% of the elementary schools in the city. Since every new class created reduces the size of other classes in a school, the state and federal aid combined has resulted in smaller classes for an estimated 30% of the students in grades K-3.

Federal funds have also been used to hire about 600 extra "floating" teachers, to provide additional individualized instruction to students in reading or math for a significant block of time on a daily basis. Though not ideal, research in Wisconsin has shown that this method of providing small group instruction may produce some of the same educational benefits as creating smaller classes.

Educators Elated
According to an informal, confidential survey undertaken by EPP, district superintendents throughout the city are tremendously enthusiastic about the class size initiative. One superintendent of a high-needs district in the Bronx responded that the program "is perfect for us," and has allowed the district to use Title I funds to shrink class size in the higher grades. A Director of Operations in a Manhattan district reported that the principals of schools participating in the program are "elated" with the results so far. Another district in Brooklyn responded in detail to the survey, with teachers of reduced-size classes relating that they are able to give students "more individualized attention" and to instruct small groups "with ease" as a result of the initiative. Parents are also thrilled, because their children are able to benefit from "more help and attention."

District 8’s Experience
One superintendent in the Bronx, Dr. Betty Rosa of District 8, was especially innovative in preparing for the program’s implementation and coping with the issue of already cramped facilities confronting so many districts. Starting the year before, she began to do advance planning for class size reduction by convening a committee including the Deputy Superintendent, the Early Childhood and Literacy Coordinators, as well as principals and parents from throughout the district.

In addition, she undertook a major rezoning effort, moving many 5th and 6th grades out of elementary school buildings and into middle schools in order to create more space. In the process, district officials had to tackle opposition from the community, some of whose members were reluctant to have their children transfer into new schools further away. The district held day and night public hearings on the issue of rezoning until community members understood more clearly the need for such changes in order to bring about the educational improvements that class size reduction could provide. Forty-five smaller classes could be created because of these efforts, and many more children will be able to benefit from the program as a result.

According to Dr. Rosa, the planning process for class size reduction also created an opportunity for the district to "rethink" their entire instructional program and to take stock and decide what really matters, educationally speaking. Reduced class size in the early grades has also allowed teachers to zero in on students’ developmental problems and to provide additional support to those children who need it. As Dr. Rosa points out, this will ultimately lessen the need for special education referrals.

Smaller Classes Reduce Special Ed Referrals
Research bears her out. One of the demonstrated benefits of smaller classes in other states has been a marked reduction in the rate of referrals to special education. In three typical California districts that reduced class size in the early grades, special education referrals dropped 16% the first year. The Tennessee STAR study showed that disciplinary referrals were also dramatically lower for those students who had been placed in smaller classes in the early grades, as were the number of students held back.

This last finding may have special relevance to the NYC public school system, because it is planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a largely unproved, mass summer school program in order to escape the need to retain huge numbers of students–money that might be better spent on other, more proven measures, such as tutoring, after-school instruction, and expanding the class size reduction program. As the Tennessee STAR research showed, by the time students reached high school, twice as many of those who had been in regular-sized classes in the early grades had been held back compared to those among their peers who attended smaller classes. But these significant benefits, as well as all of the many others tracked by the researchers, were only achieved by those students who had been placed in smaller classes for at least three years starting in Kindergarten or first grade.

EPP is now in the midst of conducting a more focused study of how the city’s class size reduction program is going thus far. We’ve begun interviewing principals and teachers who are implementing the program in a select number of schools throughout the city. Our results so far are easily as positive as the responses we received from superintendents. Principals and teachers love this program–and though many of them caution that it’s too early to be able to quantify all the benefits, they are already seeing differences in the ways in which they are able to teach and their students are able to learn.

Like a "Private School"
For example, Elizabeth Lutkowski, a first grade teacher in a school in Woodside, Queens was effusive about her experience this year teaching 16 students, compared to 27 the year before, and 33 the year before that. When she came to school this fall she was very apprehensive, since the class is primarily made up of low-achieving, high-risk children recommended by their kindergarten teachers, including several children for whom English is their second language and several more who have special needs. Nevertheless, she reports, "It’s a very wonderful situation. I feel like you are so hands-on. You know just right where they are. Messy projects can be done more readily. These are things you can’t do in a large group." She went on to say, "The children can work with manipulatives more easily and…with a small number of children, you can use multiple groups, you have more flexibility. They can also share much more easily. They’ve just made dioramas, and are sharing them in three groups. In a large group, there’s so much time to wait. These things might not seem important, but they are."

Ms. Lutkowski, who has 25 years experience teaching, 10 years of that in a private school, reports that for her students the learning environment in a smaller class is "ideal, like a private school education. They get all the extras, including time to share ideas between themselves. All of the children get a turn…they get a sense they’re important. They learn from each other better, they listen to the teacher better. They feel more free to offer their own views."

In a large class, many children get little opportunity to speak out and participate. Now, in a smaller class, Ms. Lutkowski’s students have the time and space to interact, which allows them to work on their communication skills: "Really, language is the basis of their problems…and in a smaller class, we are encouraging interaction, speaking, and communication, all of which together forms the basis for reading and writing." She is convinced the program should continue and be expanded. "It would be very interesting to see how this group would do if they continued as they are. Otherwise, some of them might be the ones who fall by the wayside in a regular class," and even be referred to special education as a result.

Principals See Smaller Classes as Key
For Ivy Sherman, the principal of PS 139 in Flatbush, Brooklyn (District 22), smaller classes have been an "incredible" experience. "It’s led to increased achievement and less behavior referrals. The students’ needs are being met–it’s been just phenomenal." PS 139 has had the benefit of smaller classes in Kindergarten and 1st grade for the last two years–and has data to prove that this reform really works to increase student achievement. Though the school’s population has a poverty level of 90%, with children from more than 51 countries, smaller classes, along with a new emphasis on professional development and "balanced" literacy, have been responsible for boosting their test scores tremendously. In just the last year, 69% of her first graders met or exceeded their grade level in reading and writing, compared to 48% the year before.

Norma Genao, principal of PS 185 in Harlem (District 3), has seen profound differences already among the children in her school who have been in smaller classes since the fall. "I see my children reading and writing. Even the children who were behind and did not have a readiness foundation, are catching up. It’s like private schooling–you are truly being accountable in providing a meaningful and appropriate and effective education to each child. Not just the few kids who would make it anyway–the survival of the fittest."

Ms. Genao is convinced that the program is the key to providing a quality education for her students: "Finally, the children in a public school in an economically deprived neighborhood have a fair chance to succeed…to getting that quality time with a teacher that only smaller classes can provide …For too many of our students, their parents are working at night, or they’re living with foster families or with grandmothers. Their best chance for quality time with an adult is right here in school. With reduced class sizes they are being given the opportunities they deserve–they are being given a chance to succeed for the first time. For the first time, the government is investing in our schools the right way."

Future Funding in Doubt
Which brings up the uneasy subject of next year’s funding for this critical program. To his credit, President Clinton was able once again able to arm wrestle the Congress into passing the federal program for class size reduction for next year. The federal program, funded this year at $1.2 billion, with about $61 million going to NYC, will next year be slightly increased to $1.3 billion. Yet in order to secure the reluctant agreement of the Republicans in Congress, the President has had to allow localities to spend up to 25% of that amount on teacher recruitment and training, up from 15% the year before.

New York State’s class size reduction program was supposed to nearly double in funding next year, increasing from $75 to $140 million statewide, so that more children would have the benefit of smaller classes in grades K-3. Governor Pataki and the Legislature agreed upon this funding level in 1997. However, in the Governor’s new proposed budget, he reneges on his promise and, instead, freezes the money for class size reduction at $75 million. In addition, he proposes allowing up to 25% of this amount to be made available for teacher training and recruitment, as the Republicans in Congress insisted the federal program allow. If the Governor’s proposal goes forward, fewer dollars would be available for class size reduction, and fewer New York City students would have the benefit of smaller classes next year.

EPP supported the state’s position that class sizes be reduced in low-performing schools first, but has always supported the original intention of the legislation–that all public school children in the state should be in small classes eventually, not just those at risk. Ironically, it has been New York City’s overly large classes that have led to so many children becoming at-risk in the first place, children who are then subjected to years of all-too-often ineffective and expensive remediation strategies. Why not make sure that all our students have access to smaller class sizes in the first place–a situation that is already the norm in the rest of the state? Clearly, we need to increase funding for this critical program–funding to add more classroom space as well as teachers.

So once again, we have a battle on our hands. If we allow the state’s class size reduction program to be frozen in place or actually reduced, this will mean that many if not all the benefits of this year’s promising start will be lost. Schools such as the ones in Harlem or in Woodside would be forced to throw this year’s first graders back into the Darwinian world of oversized classes where only the fittest survive–without benefit of the special attention they need to further develop their communication skills and begin to thrive. As the research shows, many of these students can achieve academically and go on to productive lives, if only they are given the chance to continue learning in a nurturing and closely attentive environment, which only a small class can provide.

As Norma Genao, the principal of PS 185 in Manhattan says, the class size reduction program "should stay here forever. We have come so far to obtain this–it has been so long, we must keep it. It’s the only way to guarantee success for our children…I feel honored that I’ve seen the day that I could provide these children with the appropriate resources they need to learn. Now it should be expanded to all the schools in the city. All children in this city, this state, this country are entitled to the benefits of smaller classes. Speaking as an educator, it should not be a privilege–it should be a right."

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