In Santa Ana school, class size really does matter
Volume 12, Issue 7 - April 2008
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| Scott Miller |
At Walker Elementary School in Santa Ana, Betsy Murray's fourth-grade classroon has wall-to-wall students. Numbering 34, they sit in several long rows, and their desks leave scant room for walking around the classroom — or anything else that requires movement of any kind.
Murray gestures at a few empty desks. “Three students are absent today,” she points out, while students work industriously on their math problems.
You wouldn’t know it from visiting Murray’s classroom, but Santa Ana has declining student enrollment — although some schools like Walker are still overcrowded. The district has cut nearly $100 million from its budget over the last four years and needs to cut nearly $30 million more.
Walker Elementary School was built in 1993 to relieve overcrowding in the once high-growth district. Classrooms are on the small side, since the school was designed for class size reduction, which received state funding at the urging of CTA. Classrooms were supposed to have 20 to 24 students. But Murray, a member of the Santa Ana Educators Association (SAEA), has 35 students — nearly all English learners — along with two third-graders who come in each day for differentiated math instruction, bringing the total number of her math students to 37.
“I am lucky, because they are so well behaved,” she says. And because they are older, they are more mature and better able to cope with being packed like sardines than younger students.
“But it’s difficult,” admits Murray. “The biggest challenge is that I can’t differentiate my instruction to the extent that I would like to, even though I know how. When they work in groups I try to circulate around, but it’s hard to give attention to each child. And the paperwork is hard. I get here about 7:30 a.m. and never get out of here before 5.”
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| Students in Scott Miller’s crowded classroom at Walker Elementary use folders as barriers for privacy during testing. |
In first, second and third grades at the school site — and throughout the Title I district — there are 20 students in each classroom. But these grades could soon be bursting at the seams much like Murray’s classroom, since the district has issued pink slips to about 600 teachers — nearly half of them working in first-, second- and third-grade classrooms.
Santa Ana Educators Association members who teach at Walker Elementary School are plenty worried that increasing the numbers in their classrooms will increase the challenge of being able to help all students.
“If they add 12 students to my second-grade classroom, it will make a big difference,” says Scott Miller. And he should know: When he began his career in 1989 he had 34 first-graders. When his class size was reduced to 20 students, it was like night and day.
“I said, ‘Wow, I can take a deep breath and get down to teaching,’ because discipline was not an issue. I had more quality time to spend with my students. Now I’m afraid that adding 12 students would mean some students might fall through the cracks.”
Class size reduction went by the wayside in Santa Ana kindergarten classrooms two years ago. And for those who once taught small kindergarten classes and now have large ones, it has been quite an adjustment.
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| A classroom of wall-to-wall kids at Walker Elementary — three students were absent. |
Ilian Guzman knows both sides of the coin. At one time she had 20 kindergartners. She now has 32 students — all of them English learners — in her classroom for a good part of the day. That happens from 10:08 to 11:45 during the overlap of morning and afternoon sessions of kindergarten — the Early Birds and the Late Birds.
“For those who haven’t had a 32 to 1 ratio and suddenly have it, there will be complete chaos,” predicts Guzman. “There is a big difference between having 20 students and having 32 students. It’s especially difficult at the beginning of the year, when kids are crying because they don’t want to be in school. It’s madness.”
Guzman, who says that she is now very adept at “controlling the masses,” believes that students have an easier time succeeding in a smaller class.
“I recently asked the students to sound out words and I couldn’t finish with all 32 of them. The bell rang, and some of them were still waiting for a turn. I find that in a larger class, students often have to fend for themselves, because they have less one-on-one opportunity. And it’s harder for them to ask questions, participate, feel safe and feel that the class belongs to them.”
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| Alma Nunez, a first-grade teacher at Walker who received a RIF, works with Paola Rosas. |
Numerous studies show that class size does indeed matter. The most recent findings were presented in March at the annual meeting of the Washington-based American Educational Research Association, which draws educators from around the world. In one study of British classrooms, researcher Peter Blatchford reported that elementary and secondary students benefit from smaller classes — especially lower-achieving students. Another study, conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin, found that small classes are “more engaging” places for students because they can have a more personal connection with teachers.
California has the largest student population in the nation, and currently ranks 50th nationally in teacher-per-pupil ratio according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Mary Anne Ford, a first-grade teacher at Walker Elementary School, has never taught a large class, and isn’t sure what to expect if her class size increases from 20 to 32 — or perhaps higher, since there is no cap on the number of students who can be placed in a classroom in her district. Some classes in the district — often at the high school level — may start the year out with as many as 45 students.
“I really don’t know how it will be, except worse,” Ford predicts, especially with pressure to increase test scores at the school, which is in year 3 of Program Improvement. “I guess you could say that I’m not looking forward to it at all.”
For more in-depth class size research, visit the following website: www.classsizeresearch.org.uk.
