Claus von Zastrow, Executive Director of Learning First Alliance, rightly points out in a blog post that the failure of class size research to show enough test score gains to be worth the cost past 3rd grade really points to the failure of test scores themselves to tell us much.
Interestingly, the author of the first comment speaks to precisely my train of thought when I looked into the class size research and its limitations. I ended up looking beyond just class size to the other–intertwined–relational factors. Tom came across my book in that process. His comments are:
Chicago’s school board and “CEO” recently proposed to raise class sizes to 35 (article) but then backed down to union pressure (article).
What’s lost in the discussion of this victory is that the old class sizes are already too high.
According to the Sun-Times, “K to third-grade class sizes will remain at 28; fourth- through eighth-grade classes will stay at 31, and high school classes will rise from 28 to 33.”
Talk of acute budget shortages obscures the fact that class sizes have always constituted a budget shortage.
We don’t need more genius teachers or amazing plans. We need more adults per student. – Raul and Elizabeth Martinez, Northeast Portland Click here for other views from Oregonians on “lowest performing” schools.
In the midst of a discussion of multi-grade classrooms as a response to the Florida class size law, we read:
“We don’t see them as sixth-graders or eighth-graders,” said teacher Moya Hanaway. “We see them as students with unique abilities and we teach them.”
They say some of the benefits are obvious early in the school year. Since only a third of their students are new to the class, they do not have to spend as much time learning their students’ learning styles and abilities. They can pick right up where they left off the previous school year with most of their students. That gives them more time to focus on teaching.
This is a prime example of the intersection of two aspects of the relationship load concept I put forth in my book: class size and teacher continuity. Maybe the teeth of of this law are forcing Florida to look beyond the conventions of age-grading toward more relationally promising possibilities:
“Kids don’t come in neatly counted increments,” said Sarasota Schools Superintendent Lori White. “It’s hard for me to see a situation where we wouldn’t want to consider this.”
An Odessa, TX article reads,
Chuck Isner, President of the regional chapter of the Texas State Teachers Association, agrees. “It’s really disconcerting to have legislators, in a time when we’re talking about the crisis in education, talking about increasing class sizes,” he said. “Particularly in the early grades where the need is so great.”
Is a narrative of crisis necessary to defend small classes? I even worry that my own assertion of a “childrearing crisis” in my book is problematic. Crisis talk gets heard, but does it backfire?
“Is there any parent who, all else being equal, wouldn’t want his or her youngster in a class of 17 or 18 versus a class of 23 or 24?” So asks the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News in opposing a proposal to remove K-4 class size caps. Although there is a bit too much emphasis on the test score angle, the wrap-up returns to the broader frame of individualization, teacher testimony, and plain old ethics.
Rethinking Schools has reviewed The Teacher’s Attention. Thanks.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_01/24_01_resource.shtml
First Coast News reports that a district in Florida is meeting class size limits by creating a lower-paid assistant teacher position that still requires a license but requires less prep time. The question I raise in my book about co-teaching arrangements to reduce ratio is whether it has as much effect as a smaller group of kids per room. It’s certainly better than nothing though.
My wife was having a particularly stressful week and I had two days off in a row she didn’t have, so I went in to her first grade class to help. I focused on the four kids she was having trouble with, periodically praising and redirecting their choices, if you will. I also did some 1-on-1 reading testing that I don’t see how she’s ever supposed to have time to do. Things went much better, of course. So no, there’s nothing wrong with having that extra adult. The question is whether that extra adult is always used effectively. There were certain stretches where I did feel I was just watching.
Does having two adults tend to encourage having a larger group of kids in order to produce the chaotic events that will keep the second adult busy?
The Jacksonville Observer reports that a Florida senate committee approved with only one vote against a bill for vote that would put on the ballot a change to the class size amendment. According to the AP it would “keep counts at the school-wide average and permit the addition of a few extra seats where necessary” by removing the next step stipulated for the 2010-11 school year, which mandates absolute class-by-class caps.
All in all, this is not a bad compromise, no? Much worse could have happened.
Georgia, Oklahoma and Nevada are following California and Florida in proposals to undo or temporarily suspend K-3 class size limits. The Wall Street Journal offered this graphic of kindergarten limits by state:
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