At a time when school districts are threatening to eliminate class size reduction programs, one school district can't expand its class size reduction program fast enough. In fact, after reducing class sizes in grades 4 through 6 in a dozen Title I schools three years ago, the district is now looking for ways to reduce class size in all of its schools.
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Elementary school teachers sacrificed prep time to enable upper grades to participate in class size reduction, say Elk Grove EA President Cheryl Hollis and second-grade teacher Charles Curran. |
That's because students near Sacramento are reaping the benefits of class size reduction in improved API test scores.
"We've averaged phenomenal gains between 2000 and 2002," says Cheryl Hollis, president of the Elk Grove Education Association, which proposed the experiment.
"People always ask, 'Is it the curriculum? Is it the textbooks?' But we say it's class size reduction, and we have the data to support it."
The data is impressive. While a three-point gain is seen as significant in test scores, one Elk Grove school's API scores went from 553 to 657 in a two-year period, an increase of 104 points. Scores in two other schools increased 53 and 60 points in the two-year period while several others had increases of 36 to 48 points.
"None of our Title I schools are under 600 points on the API test. With a district as diverse as ours, the fact that not a single school is under 600 on the API is amazing," says Hollis.
Elk Grove's experiment in class size reduction began in 2000. In an effort to improve academic achievement in the district's Title I schools - those schools that receive supplemental federal funds to work with low-achieving students in high-poverty areas - the chapter convinced the district to embark on a plan to restructure its Title I funding to allow class size reduction in grades 4, 5 and 6.
"We began to crunch the numbers and realized that by reallocating our teachers in grades 4-6, we could reduce class sizes in those Title I schools from 34:1 to 24:1," explains Charlie Chatten, a teacher at Donner Elementary who serves as the chapter's budget advisor. "The superintendent of elementary education got excited by the idea, and we ended up putting together a pilot program at the schools."
To accomplish this, schools scrambled to create more classrooms while teachers restructured their prep time to free up more teaching time during the instructional day. Some resource teachers went back into the classroom as well.
The change in the contract meant that instead of 180 minutes a week of prep time during the instructional day, teachers would get 225 minutes a week outside the instructional day. The teaching staff has to hold a special sidebar election annually to allow a change in the prep time agreement.
"Each year, the vote has exceeded the number needed to pass the issue," Hollis says, observing that K-3 teachers have willingly given up prep time within the instructional day in order to help reduce the class size for their colleagues teaching older students.
In fact, the change has made for a more stable faculty at the schools. "We used to lose our upper-grade teachers. A lot wanted to move down to third grade so they could have smaller classes, while others would transfer out. It was a bad situation," says Donna Cherry, principal at John Reith Elementary School. "Now our teacher retention is much greater. We just don't have teachers requesting transfers like we used to."
While the K-6 school is bulging at the seams with its 1,000 kids, "it certainly doesn't feel like it with class size reduction," says Charles Curran, a second-grade teacher.
"Instead of prep time during the day, now we're all doing our prep time after the kids leave. It's always a little harder to do it in the afternoon, but when you know you have a second-grader who will continue on in small classes, it's worth it," he says.
Not that smaller class size means that teachers are working any less hard. Now that teachers have more time to pay attention to individual students, they're working as hard but accomplishing more. Teachers can develop closer relationships with students and families and maintain better contact.
In addition to improving test scores, lower class sizes have resulted in fewer suspensions, office referrals and other behavior problems.
When sixth-grade teacher Sonya Welch's classes were reduced from 34 to 24 students, it made such a difference, she decided to write her master's thesis on the subject. In it, she showed evidence of dramatic improvement in student scores in math, language arts and reading. There has been a huge improvement in writing as well, she says.
"I can get around to each student in each subject on a daily basis. I'm more in touch with what each student is doing and I have a better opportunity to answer their questions."
Despite the budget bloodletting that is taking place around the state, EGEA is working with the district to figure out how to extend class size reduction to upper grades in schools that don't get Title I funds.
"We're meeting on ways to expand the program," says Hollis. "We have such a fast-growing district that there is definitely a facilities issue, but it's a program that is strongly supported by both the teachers and the administration."
Dale Martin
