Fall 1999 (v3#3)
Smaller Classes for New York City at Last!
by Leonie Haimson

Class Size Matters Campaign rare and groundbreaking victory for the children of New York City has at last been achieved. Smaller classes are coming this fall to New York City schools. Late at night on August 3, the political deadlock finally broke, and Governor Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver agreed to a long-delayed budget package that included funds for the state education aid program known as LADDER, an essential part of which was money for class size for class size reduction in grades K-3. LADDER, which includes Universal Pre-K, Minor Maintenance and other education programs as well as class size reduction, will be funded at a total of $269.8 million statewide. Of this total, $75 million is to be spent to hire new teachers to reduce class size in the early grades, $47.9 million of which is expected to flow directly to New York City, which has long had the largest class sizes in the state.

The state budget agreement also paved the way for New York City to receive an additional $61.2 million in federal funds for class size reduction, dollars that were put in jeopardy by the Governor’s ill-conceived attempt to break the pledge he originally made in the summer of 1997 to fund the multi-year LADDER program. He had made this promise in return for the Assembly’s agreement to his STAR property tax relief program, which was recognized as primarily benefiting wealthy suburban homeowners. In return, he agreed to support educational programs that would primarily help the Big 5 urban areas and other low-wealth, high-need school districts, which on average have the largest class sizes in the state. Yet after the Governor precipitously withdrew his support for LADDER last January, it took months of advocacy work on the part of groups like EPP and the Class Size Matters Campaign, parent rallies and editorials in The New York Times, and most importantly, the steadfast and unwavering support of Sheldon Silver and Steve Sanders, Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, before the funding for these critical programs was finally restored.

According to William Casey, Chief Executive for Program Development and Dissemination for the Board of Education, who is in charge of overseeing the implementation of class size reduction in the city schools, the combined state and federal funds have provided the means to create hundreds of new, smaller classes in grades K-3, especially in the lowest-performing schools that need them the most. In his presentation to EPP on September 16, he explained how the Chancellor and the Board of Education distributed these funds. They identified a list of priority A schools which were to receive the state dollars first - based upon four criteria: 1) SURR schools; 2) schools removed from the SURR list in the 1998-99 school year; 3) schools whose students scored in the lowest 20th percentile on the 3rd grade city reading test; or 4) schools whose students scored in the lowest 20th percentile on the 3rd grade state reading test. In these schools, as many new K-3 classes were created as necessary to bring the average class size down to 20, where space allowed.

An "Alternative Approach" for overcrowded schools
In those schools where there wasn’t the space to create enough new classes, some of the federal money is being used for an "alternative approach": to bring an extra teacher into a classroom, to provide more individualized and small group instruction to students for a significant block of time on a regular basis. The Board of Education hired only teachers for this purpose, not paraprofessionals, in line with the studies that reveal that the educational benefits of pairing a paraprofessional with a teacher in a regular-size class are negligible. Districts were also instructed to prioritize the creation of new classes in order of grade level, beginning with kindergarten first, as EPP recommended, consistent with the research demonstrating that smaller classes have the greatest impact on academic achievement the earlier they begin in a child’s education.

In all, 904 new classes were expected to be formed with 20 or fewer students per class in grades K-3. In addition, each new class was estimated to reduce the size of approximately four other classes to twenty, since the average size throughout the city for K -3 was previously about 25 students per class. Thus, the Board of Education estimates that the combined state and federal funds will result in about 4,520 classes of 20 or less, representing 90,000 students or 27% of the total K-3 enrollment citywide.

In addition, according to Mr. Casey, funds were also used to create 68 new, smaller classes for grades 4 and 5 in high-priority schools in the Chancellor’s District, which contains some of the lowest performing schools in the city. Finally, 692 additional teachers were hired and assigned to already existing classes in overcrowded schools that did not have the physical capacity to form entirely new classrooms. This "alternative approach" will benefit an additional 43,250 children, or 13% of those in K-3, making a total of approximately 40% of New York City early-grade students who will be afforded additional small group instruction as a result of these funds.

Though the Federal funds were originally designed to be used to reduce class sizes in grades 1-3 only, the Board of Education asked for and received a waiver to use some of these dollars in New York City to hire additional kindergarten teachers as well. Federal funds are also being used to pay for professional development for the new teachers, a minor amount for administrative expenses, and extra "cluster" teachers. Cluster teachers (who teach music, art, gym etc.) are needed because for every four regular classroom teachers that are hired, an extra one must be enlisted to cover their classes during their "prep" periods, as mandated by union contracts. Whatever federal moneys were left over were allotted to districts on a per capita basis, to reduce classes in their schools as they saw fit, in accordance with their Comprehensive Education Plans. Overall, the Board of Education estimated that 75% of elementary schools in the city received some funds to reduce the size of at least one class in grades K-3, or to assign an additional teacher to a classroom under the "alternative approach."

Mr. Casey emphasized to EPP that these numbers, based upon the Board of Education’s plan completed over the summer, are very preliminary and are expected to change depending upon some inherently unpredictable factors, such as shifts in enrollment in particular schools, which would only be fully known when the school year is further underway. More reliable figures will have to wait until the Board of Education has completed its regular citywide audit of enrollment in October. Nevertheless, however rough, these figures are extremely exciting, and quite gratifying to many of us who have been pressing for such changes for a long time, in the face of opponents who argued that given the physical constraints of the school system, class size reduction was an utter impossibility.

The fight has just begun
Unfortunately, as parents and advocates, we cannot afford to sit back and rest on these achievements. Not only must we strive to monitor what is actually happening in classrooms across the city in terms of class size reduction, but we must redouble our efforts to make sure that the state and federal financing for this program continues, and, indeed, is expanded, as originally planned. Governor Pataki has made it crystal clear that he intends to oppose the continuation of the LADDER funding even more strenuously this year, as the huge bill for his STAR property tax cut looms on the budgetary horizon. And as of September, President Clinton was engaged in another fierce battle with the Republican-controlled Congress over whether the federal budget will again contain crucial dollars to hire new teachers to reduce early grade class size in schools throughout the country. Our best hope now is that as smaller classes secure a foothold in the New York City schools, the political momentum for these reforms will be intensified, and, on the eve of the millennium, the clock will not be allowed to be turned back once again.