Does Size Matter?

Romney sparks a debate on school class size

May 25, 2012|By Jeff Gammage and Rita Giordano, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

For years, teachers and parents have insisted that smaller class sizes are crucial to kids' educational success.
On Thursday, Mitt Romney visited Philadelphia and politely said they were mistaken.
And on Friday, passions erupted - among partisans and professionals, from city classrooms to City Hall to Cherry Hill.
"Out of touch with reality," Mayor Nutter fumed about the presumptive GOP nominee.
"Just plain wrong," said Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey teachers union.
It's a tenet of modern American elementary and secondary education: Smaller classes produce better results. But is that accurate?
It's certain that smaller class sizes are enormously popular - not just with parents and educators, but with legislators. In recent decades, a recent Brookings Institute study found, at least 24 states have acted to require or encourage reductions in class sizes.
But here's the problem: It's expensive.
Having smaller classes means hiring more teachers and backing them with more support services. That's particularly difficult in a tough economy. Those sort of investments, in places where they've been made, have been justified by the belief that smaller classes effectively increase student learning and achievement.
In 2011, Brookings sought to examine the large body of studies on class size, and identify the most credible.
On top was the Student Teacher Achievement Ratio, or STAR, conducted in Tennessee in the late 1980s. It found that classes with 15 students achieved higher than classes with 22 - the smaller classes gaining the equivalent of three extra months of instruction.
Studies in Texas, and in the nation of Israel, found smaller gains. Other rigorous studies found mixed results in California and no effects in Florida and Connecticut.
"Conclusions have to be tentative," the Brookings study said. "But it appears that very large class-size reductions, on the order of magnitude of 7-10 fewer students per class, can have significant long-term effects on student achievement."
Teacher Aileene Halligan didn't need a study to confirm what she sees every day.
Until recently, she taught eighth-grade Spanish at Ethan Allen Elementary in Northeast Philadelphia, where her classes held as many as 38 students.
"You're praying that five kids are going to be absent each day," she said. "I couldn't get to the desks, it was so crowded. . . . Worse was the faces of the kids, looking at you like, 'Please, get to me today.' "
Now Halligan teaches ninth- and 10th-grade history at Kensington Urban Education Academy, a public high school, where most of her classes have 30 students and one has 19. The larger classes are manageable, "but it's always the smaller the better."
Why?
Field trips are easier. Donations and resources go farther. And most important, she's able to spend more time with individual students.
"To say class size doesn't matter," she said, "is a real slap in the face."
Efforts to reach Romney Pennsylvania campaign officials were unsuccessful Friday.
On Thursday, Romney visited a West Philadelphia elementary school and suggested that class size mattered little to achievement. Teachers in the room immediately, respectfully, told him he was full of soup.
Talking to a dozen or so roundtable guests at Universal Bluford Charter School, named for astronaut Guion Bluford, Romney said quality teaching and parental involvement were the keys. He recalled how, as governor of Massachusetts, he studied what does and does not boost test scores.
His staff analyzed schools in 351 cities - and found no correlation between performance and class size, he said.
"As a matter of fact, the district with the smallest classrooms, Cambridge, had students performing in the bottom 10 percent," Romney told the group. "So just getting smaller classrooms didn't seem to be the key."
He cited a study by the McKinsey Global Institute that found teacher and parent involvement mattered most.
Classes in Philadelphia public schools run as big as 33 students. Statewide, the average is 21. The national average is 20 in elementary schools and 19 in high schools, according to the federal Education Department.
From seventh grade through graduation, Romney attended the private Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Classes there are small, according to statistics provided Friday by the school.
In prekindergarten, classes have 15 students, taught by two teachers and an assistant teacher. Kindergarten classes have 18 students and two teachers. Grades first to fifth are limited to 18 students per class, and grades sixth through eighth typically have 15 or 16 students. Classes in ninth through twelfth are capped at 18 students.
"Class size does matter," insisted Penny Nixon, the Philadelphia School District's chief academic officer. And it matters especially, she said, in an urban district, where students are more likely to need extra support.
It's true that research has come down on both sides, Nixon said. But in her time as a middle school teacher and principal, "the difference between 25 students in a class and 33 students in a class is huge."
So important is size that even though the district is in financial crisis - cutting $700 million from its budget over the past year, facing a $218 million shortfall next year - it's going ahead with plans to reduce class numbers in kindergarten through third grade. The goal is to have no more than 25 students in those classes.
Students had their own opinions Friday.
Outside Cherry Hill High School West, Louis Stewart, a 17-year-old junior, said he tended to think class size wasn't so important.
"I would say it has more to do with the teacher," he said. "Some teachers are more involved with their students than others. But it would be harder to do that with a larger class."
Julia Lanuez, a 16-year-old junior, said class size matters. "When it's a smaller class, it's more personalized learning and easier to meet everyone's needs."
Elsewhere in Cherry Hill, Kwame Morton, principal of the Joyce Kilmer Elementary School, cautioned that some research shows small class size alone will not yield quality results. "You have to look at lower class size along with teacher efficiency," he said.
On Friday, Nutter took part in an Obama campaign conference call to criticize Romney's views.
"I'm not sure what universe he's operating in, but we certainly know in Pennsylvania, every parent knows, every second grader knows, that smaller class sizes are preferable," the mayor said.
During the call, Erin Thesing, a first-grade teacher at Mann Elementary charter school in West Philadelphia, endorsed President Obama's education plans and described her difficulties with larger classes.
At the start of the school year, her class roster had 25 names - but 30 students showed up, forcing her to squeeze in desks, tables and chairs. Every day, parents demanded: Why must my child sit so far from the board? When will the class shrink?
Eventually her class was reduced to 21 students, "an absolute dream" that enables her to give one-on-one attention to students. And, she said, she no longer steps over chairs and boxes.
"The more personal attention I can give my students," Thesing said, "the better."

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Contact staff writer Jeff Gammage at 215-854-2415, jgammage@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @JeffGammage.

Inquirer staff writer Kristen A. Graham contributed to this article.

Venting

The American Conservative Union (circa 1964), which rates members of Congress on how they vote on conservative issues, gave Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick a 64 rating, meaning that he is independent -- but conservative where it counts.
Pat Wandling, Middletown



Here's my vent:  the people that complain the most about pay-to-play politics seem to be the most hypocritical and prolific practitioners of it.

Survey: Pa. Schools in Dire Financial Straits

From today's Phila. Inquirer.

Survey: Pa. schools in dire financial straits

By Dan Hardy

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO).

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Parents speak with SRC in secret

A survey of Pennsylvania school districts to be made public Tuesday shows many headed toward insolvency in the next few years, and to avoid it they are weighing cuts to music, art, physical education, and electives while increasing class size and raising taxes.
Two hundred and eighty-one of the state’s 500 districts — 56 percent — participated in the late April survey by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO). The names of the specific districts were not released, a condition of their participation.
More than half said they anticipated being in financial distress — not being able to meet their obligations — within three years, if local and state revenues don’t increase. Three percent — more than a half-dozen — said they were already broke.
A large part of the financial crisis stems from school employee pension payments, which are expected to triple — from $1.2 billion to almost $4 billion — over the next four years, said Jay Himes, PASBO’s executive director. At the same time, federal, state, and local revenues will be “flat, at best,” he said.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Jim Buckheit, the executive director of PASA. “We have not seen anything like it in generations.”
Districts, he said, “have already picked the low-hanging fruit; now, to balance their budgets, they are having to climb to the top of the tree or cut off a limb.”
Gov. Corbett said this month that many districts still have sizable savings and should use them, rather than cut programs. A state Education Department tally shows reserves statewide totaling about $3.3 billion.
But Himes said the figures are a year old, and more than half the total has been set aside to pay for specific anticipated expenses, such as debt financing and future pension fund increases. The April school district survey shows about three-quarters of responding districts using reserves for 2012-13, with many using more than they did last year, Himes said.
A school district survey last fall by PASBO and PASA showed that the 294 responding districts had cut 8,365 jobs; the April survey shows three-quarters of those who answered planning to eliminate more jobs next fall, through layoffs or not filling vacant positions.
Also, 58 percent of the responding districts are weighing cuts in art and music instruction, physical education classes, electives, and advanced placement offerings.
Several districts are considering eliminating kindergarten; others are considering cutting all art, music, and physical education, Himes said.
Locally, the Chester Upland School District, which almost went broke in January, is under pressure from state officials to cut transportation and sports and to close some schools. The district laid off 28 percent of its staff last fall and eliminated arts and music programs.
Delaware County’s Upper Darby School District is considering eliminating elementary school art and music classes, as well as physical education teachers and middle school language and technology classes.
Even prosperous districts are feeling the heat. Chester County’s affluent Tredyffrin/Easttown district is considering increasing class sizes even as it passed a preliminary final budget that increases taxes by 3.3 percent and uses $1.5 million in savings.

Catholic Students Lobby for Vouchers

In today's Phila. Inquirer.

Posted: Mon, May. 21, 2012, 6:19 AM

Catholic students lobby for vouchers

By Rita Giordano

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

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Archdiocese pushes for school vouchers

Hundreds of students, as well as parents and teachers, addressed Roman Catholic Masses throughout the Philadelphia Archdiocese over the weekend to urge parishioners to lobby their legislators to support tax-funded school vouchers.

“Please help to pass school-voucher legislation?… not just for my family, but for all families who want their kids to experience lifelong success,” said Patrick McCann, 16, a Roman Catholic High School junior, addressing churchgoers at the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Monica Church in South Philadelphia.

Called Voucher Sunday, the archdiocese-organized effort was part of a campaign to get legislative action in Harrisburg before Pennsylvania lawmakers take their summer break. In October, the state Senate approved a bill that would provide publicly funded tuition vouchers to help poor students in failing schools transfer to other institutions, whether public, private, or parochial. The legislation would also lift the $75 million funding cap on the popular Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program, which gives tax breaks to businesses that provide tuition funding for low-income students. The fund would be allowed to increase to $100 million.

But the bill is not a priority in the House, and with legislators in the midst of annual negotiations on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July?1, an issue as contentious as vouchers is seen as a longshot for now.

In a recent column, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput called the next few weeks “crucial” and exhorted Catholics to press their legislators (“Call them. Write them. E-mail them. Visit them.”) to act on vouchers and increased EITC funding.

This weekend, Chaput’s foot soldiers rallied to the cause.

McCann, who attended St. Monica’s school, urged his fellow parishioners to write, meet with, and e-mail their legislators “until the vote occurs.”

More than 500 students and some parents and teachers spoke at more than 1,000 area Masses this weekend, archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell said.

Referring to the limited time until the legislature’s summer break, Farrell said: “It’s a very narrow window, but we believe the momentum is there.”

In the last year, the archdiocese announced the merger of numerous Catholic schools. Chaput has said that without vouchers and increased EITC funding, more schools will close. With vouchers and additional EITC money, more families could afford to send children to the schools, Farrell said.

Gov. Corbett supports vouchers. The House, however, has not appeared interested in picking up the measure. “I’ve seen no real support on my side of the world,” said State Rep. James Roebuck (D., Phila.), a voucher opponent.

Of the Catholic campaign, he said: “They have the right to advocate for what they want.” He added that he would meet this week in Philadelphia with some Catholic school students who want to discuss the issue.

Roebuck said he did not support taking money away from public schools, didn’t believe vouchers were permitted under the state Constitution, and didn’t see them as addressing the issue of providing a good education for all students.

At St. Monica’s, however, vouchers had supporters.

“Options are good because they make everyone better,” said the Rev. Joseph Kelley, parish pastor.

Joanne Zepp said she was putting two children through Catholic school.

“It’s hard. We sacrifice a lot,” she said.

“We’re taxpayers, too,” said Maria Realdine, who has children in Catholic and public schools. “We feel if they want to allocate more funding for the schools, it’s a good thing.”

Plan to grade teachers based on student achievement under debate

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Carolyn Kaster

The west facade of the Pennsylvania state Capitol is seen Sept. 25, 2006, in Harrisburg. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Posted: Monday, May 21, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 6:13 am, Mon May 21, 2012.

By Gary Weckselblatt Staff Writer | 3 comments

Posted on May 21, 2012

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  by Gary Weckselblatt

Calling it “one of the most important bills we will pass,” upper Bucks County state Rep. Paul Clymer is touting legislation to implement a statewide teacher evaluation system for school districts throughout Pennsylvania.

Clymer, R-145, chairman of the Education Committee, said the idea is to ensure that each classroom in the commonwealth has “the most qualified teacher for our school children to be the very best they can be.”

He said he hopes House Bill 1980, sponsored by Lancaster Republican Ryan Aument, will pass the House by June 30.

The measure would have 50 percent of an educator’s evaluation based on student achievement, calculated using results from statewide assessments and other student growth data.

The remaining portion of the overall evaluation rating, classified as traditional teacher practices, would include areas such as classroom observations, planning and teacher interaction.

Rather than be graded either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, as is the case in most districts today, teachers would be rated distinguished, proficient, needs improvement or failing.

“Our students have a right to a quality teacher in every classroom,” Aument stated in a press release. “Therefore, we must identify who those teachers are, we must retain them, we must encourage them, ensure students have access to them, and we must assist those teachers who are struggling.”

State Rep. John Galloway, D-140, was the only Democrat to side with Republicans in a 15-8 vote that moved the bill out of committee. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be for it when the whole House takes up the issue.

“I think this needs to be brought to the full House for a full debate,” he said. “This is a very important issue. We need to hear from everyone. In committee, I felt the debate was exhausted.

“There are some things about the idea I like, I’d just like to hear more about it.”

Ron Tomalis, Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, is pushing for the legislation. He has said that having 99.4 percent of state teachers rated as adequate last year shows “the evaluation system doesn’t help drive the instruction process.”

Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget proposal includes $3.7 million for implementation of teacher evaluations in the 2013-14 school year, supplemented by funding awarded to Pennsylvania through the federal Race to the Top grant.

The state’s Department of Education, citing a National Bureau of Economic Research and Harvard/Columbia study, said the most significant factor in the success of a student is the individual at the front of the classroom. Effective educators have the ability to increase a student’s lifetime earnings by $267,000.

Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Educators Association, said his organization is on record “for some time saying the teacher evaluation system in Pennsylvania needs to be improved.”

However, the PSEA has “raised concerns” about proposals like Aument’s that call for evaluations to include a high percentage of student performance.

“The bottom line for us is that teachers should be evaluated over factors they control,” he said. “Even the most statistically complex models of teacher evaluation based on student performance have not been reliable when it comes to student academic growth.”

Keever said the PSEA supports curriculum-based assessments, teacher-created assessments, student projects and portfolios, district-based pre/post-assessments tied to academic standards, and standardized test scores.

The Quakertown School District has been one of about 100 districts employing the program, first as a pilot and now in phase two and feeding its results to the state.

Superintendent Lisa Andrejko believes “it will raise the level of teaching” statewide.

“Look, I have certainly dealt with the political influences and mandates out of Harrisburg that have not been well thought through and become a hindrance. This is not one of them,” she said.

Every teacher in every Quakertown school has been evaluated under the new plan, Andrejko said, “which should tell you what we think of it. Teachers and administrators are really on the same page.”

Anita Serge, principal at Quakertown High School, said “it’s a very complete, analytical process. A process that really has a teacher reflect on their teaching skills and ways on which they can improve. This is about our students receiving quality education in every classroom. It’s meant to improve instruction.”

At a recent school board meeting Chris Roth, president of the district’s teachers association, said the evaluations are a lot more work but the teachers he’s spoken with say it provides a “clear picture of what they do and a clear picture if they have to defend what they do.

“There is more time and effort, but in the end I think it will produce better teachers,” he said.