A suit was brought against the NYC schools recently for not moving on a plan to reduce class sizes. The best part about the plan is that it’s not just another K-3 “glorified preschool”, but K-12 across the board.

According to that plan, by 2012 the city will reduce class sizes in kindergarten through the third grade classes to an average of fewer than 20 students from 21; in middle grades to 23 students from nearly 26; and in classes of core high school subjects to 24.5 students from 26.6.

Instead, preliminary city data for this year shows that class sizes in the lower grades have an average of 22 students; in the middle grades, 25.8 students; and in the upper grades, 26.8 students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06classsize.html

It’s a broad coalition:

Class Size Matters joined with the UFT, the NAACP, the Hispanic Federation, and parent leaders from the Bronx and Queens

http://classsizematters.org/classsizelawsuit1510.html

Other info:

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/01/15/queens/queensdiglscz01152010.txt

On Nov. 2nd Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters in NYC did an interview for a local station. Check out the second half of this podcast:

http://publicthinktankradio.org/podcasts/PTTNov3podcast.mp3

Here is another of her appearances (at minute 31) on a recent Oregon Public Radio program:

http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/download/http://stream2.opb.org:9000/tol/episodes/2009/1019.mp3

She also did a piece for the Huffington Post recently critiquing Mayor Bloomberg’s failed class size promises, among others:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson/bloombergs-original-campa_b_333013.html

Her organization is in the list of links on the right.

Although it was per pupil spending that made the headline, it was class size that made the (cliche?) humanized intro.

Judy Taylor’s fifth-grade class at Park Lane Elementary School in Sandy is too close for comfort, with up to 30 students.

“We don’t have enough room in the classroom for all the desks that need to be there,” Taylor said. “Where do we put these children?”

UEA leaders seek more spending per pupil as investment in future: State population and diversity rising, they note at convention. Amy K. Stewart, Deseret News, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

And it was class size that beat out per pupil spending in a poll of what people want.

A Dan Jones & Associates poll of 600 Utah residents in May shows 71 percent believe class sizes are too large. And 66 percent of those surveyed believe funding for Utah’s public schools is too low.

The two are related, of course.

Kent School District near Seattle just settled with teachers to end a strike for lower class size limits and support for teachers with the largest classes and pupil loads.

To get class sizes reduced, [the teachers] accepted a slightly lower compensation package in the two-year contract they overwhelmingly approved Monday morning.

(Kent teachers settle; class-size issue to live on. Though the Kent teachers strike has ended and schools were reopening Tuesday, teachers inside and beyond the Kent School District vowed to continue fighting for smaller classes. Nancy Bartley and Linda Shaw. Seattle Times, 9/15/09)

A great victory in lean times.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S1045787.shtml?cat=565