Leonie Haimson is chief executive of Class Size Matters and Privacy Matters. She is one of the nation’s foremost advocates for reducing class sizes, especially for the neediest children.
In this article, she reviews the recent scandal in New York City about “credit recovery,” a quick and easy way to hand out high school diplomas. It is “graduate rate inflation,” a practice launched under Mayor Bloomberg but sustained by the de Blasio administration.
The de Blasio administration is trying to help struggling schools instead of closing them, as the Bloomberg administration did. Here are Haimson’s proposals:
According to the Independent Budget Office, all the Renewal schools have much larger numbers of English language learners, immigrant students, students with disabilities, and students in temporary housing, as well as more black and Hispanic students than the system as a whole.
What the students in these schools desperately need is intensive tutoring and small classes to make significant improvements, not a new cadre of inexperienced teachers or administrators breathing down their necks. And yet more than 60 percent of the Renewal schools still have many classes with 30 students or more, according to DOE data.
When Rudy Crew was chancellor, he drew the lowest-performing schools in the city into a new program called the Chancellor’s District, and capped class size in all of their classes at no more than twenty students. This worked effectively to raise achievement. Yet not a single elementary or K–8 school on the Renewal list had capped class sizes at 20 students in grades K-3 last year, as most experts would recommend. These were also the goals that the state demanded the DOE achieve citywide in its class size reduction plan in these grades, as part of the settlement of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit in 2007.
Only eight middle or 6-12 schools out of 43 Renewal schools last year had capped class sizes at 23 students in grades 6-8, and only one renewal high school out of 31 had capped class sizes at 25 – the goals for those grades in the city’s original class size reduction plan. More than half of the high schools had at least some classes with 35 to 44 students – which mean they violated union contract levels.
The real scandal is that hundreds of thousands of New York City high school students, including those at schools that have allegedly engaged in credit manipulation, like Richmond Hill, Flushing, and Automotive, continue to struggle in large classes of 34 or more.
Rudy Crew had a vision of what high-poverty students need to succeed; but right now, there is no comparable vision on the part of this administration. If we are talking about accountability for schools and teachers, we must also address the accountability of those in charge of running our schools, and here the mayor and the chancellor have unaccountably failed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I couldn’t agree more. Even though I work in a great school, there is no way that I or any of my colleagues can address all of the needs of my 34 x 5 = 170 students. Grading alone is a nightmare; parental outreach is very time consuming but a top priority. Anyone who claims that class size does NOT matter has clearly never been in an oversized classroom as a student or has never taught a day in his or her life!
Just think how many tutors or teachers could be hired with all the money that’s been spent on testing that isn’t effective in guiding instruction! That alone would reduce class size significantly.
Class size as a reform has usually been abandoned quickly, as has differential pay/career ladders for teachers [not something teachers like, but like merit pay, a “usual suspects” reform], cuz they are more expensive. So, the absence of immediate and miraculous results justifies abandoning them in short order. Instead, “no excuses” reforms are ordered based on promises not kept and systems that manipulate every possible variable, especially what kids are served. It’s easier to blame schools and teachers for not doing miracles, and then turn to private sector-oriented replacement schools that promise much and deliver less than needed and always ask for more. Even in $$-scarce systems like schools, there is so much spent w/no possible payoff [trips to conferences or hardware to replace people or special favored projects that are costly and have no record of effects], but even if all that was somehow culled or redistributed, doing the job in schools today is costly and complex. I hate to see waste like tests or short-term/high-investment addenda when they prevent efforts that take time but have some basis in research/experience. It’s damned frustrating. When you don’t make investments like Crew did, time & money just slip away and another cohort of kids perform along the same lines as always. Arrrgh.
Great positive suggestions. Support the kids that need us the most instead of throwing them under the bus. Add to this whole child assessment at the local level because kids learn and demonstrate learning in different ways and assess individual advancement because kids learn at different rates and you will see additional results.
One step in the right direction is the Collins amendment to ESEA that allows schools to use innovative assessments in lieu of the test. And public school teachers are the best at innovation. ( http://www.wholechildreform.com to read that amendment )
Small class size and more planning time are essential to implement innovation in education. And recognizing differences in children needs systemic change.
Speaking of solutions, here is a question for Diane and other people who know their research:
Yesterday I read about Rav Chetty (who I discovered was in the same college class as my son, but son never heard of him) to find out about the rising academic star who gave us the research regarding three good teachers in three years and you’ll make so much more money.
Well, I am not a MacArthur Fellow but I do wonder about this:
What did Raj base his research studies on? Did he use test scores given to him by school districts (as in Atlanta or Washington D.C.) or did he arrange for his own professionally administered and secure testing?
Does anyone know? Thanks.
Linda, I don’t know the details but if I remember correctly it was a long term data set from an urban school district. I remember thinking at the time it had to be one of the largest three districts based on the number of students described.
Since it was a district data set, the researchers did not establish and supervise the testing conditions. Because it was a long term data set, it is almost certainly the case that the same assessment was not used over the entire period so there was equating across different assessments.
Linda,
Raj and his colleagues had a very large data set–probably NYC–from the 1990s, before high-stakes testing. Critics say that one might be able to use test scores for large scale judgments about districts, but not for individual teachers.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, Stiles and Diane.
TE, I don’t object to the substance of your comments, but your tone is objectionable. Your comments are held in moderation because you became personal and insulting. Now you are more subtle but your tone is still sneering at us lesser beings.
I agree with Arthur Camins who offers some meaningful ideas about creating strong public schools offering community resources to address poverty. He also recommends addressing the funding inequities inherent in public education. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-camins/the-k12-education-speech-_b_7755854.html
This is spot on! What a fantastic (albeit depressing) article by Leonie Haimson.
How is it possible that any thinking person can not understand that what these falling schools full of at-risk kids need is very small class sizes? It may be that a class of 20 or 22 works for some of them who are easy to teach and want to learn. But the ones who are behind or have learning issues need even smaller classes than that. The notion that you are supposed to teach a 14 or 15 year old student who has struggled in math since K the new Regents Algebra I curriculum and not waste a year of time is nonsensical. And the notion that a “good teacher” can get 25 1st grade at-risk kids living in poverty to perform on grade level with little resources is nonsensical. So much time is wasted teaching to the outrageously difficult test instead of simply slowing down the curriculum for the students who need it, and having very small classes every day to help them master whatever concept they struggle with. It’s basically what upper middle class and now frequently middle class parents do every day — especially in private schools — they hire expensive one-on-one tutors for daily help whenever their child struggles, if they aren’t doing the tutoring themselves. If we want to help the schools with families who can’t afford this, or (perhaps because they are new immigrants) aren’t aware of this, it should be part of those schools.
The amount spent to test students is staggering. We know that high poverty schools are “failing”, and all the testing in the world won’t change that. The fact that Mayor de Blasio is not embracing this is shocking. He should know better.
My favorite bit of disconnect from team de Blasio / Fariña: adding an hour to the school day for Renewal Schools because it is a proven way to improve outcomes while at the same time claiming with a straight face that at-risk kids at every other school are better off without the 37.5 minutes of small class size (5:1 for special ed/ELLs; 10:1 for gen ed) extended day tutoring they’d been getting 4 days a week, 144 days a year. Look over there, universal pre-K!
Universal pre-k IS a good thing. So are small classes – especially for at-risk kids. I am not sure if you agree, Tim, because some of the people you support in the charter school industry are saying small class size is not important. I imagine those “class size doesn’t matter” advocates are happy that de Blasio and Farina seem to agree.
Universal pre-k could be a good thing, but definitely not in the hands of any current politicians or rephormers, even de Blasio. They will make it just an extension of the developmentally inappropriate test-and-punish regime that’s currently infecting the lower elementary grades and kindergarten. No pre-k at all is better than bad pre-k.
Dienne, in NYC pre-K has not yet been warped by that. Class sizes are capped at 18 with a teacher and aide. Testing is far in the future. I would not throw out this very good thing because you think it is “rephorm”. So while no pre-k may or may not be worse than bad pre-k, the fact is that the pre-k that exists in NYC is good.
Credit recovery, or grade manipulation, is much cheaper and easier than hiring extra teachers and reducing class sizes. Chicago is perfecting this, too: http://windycityteachers.blogspot.com/2015/07/cps-grade-and-attendance-manipulation.html
Diane – I enjoy the quality, thoroughness, and thoughtfullness of your blog posts and commentary. I’m not an educator but I am a mother of a young child who reads through all these wonderful thoughtful articles and it scares me. I’d love to read your thoughts on how parents can help guide their children’s education. I’m a parent living in Tarrytown NY. We have a wonderfully socio-economically diverse school district that I am a product of and was thrilled at moving back to the area in part because I wanted my child to have the same educational experiences and benefits that I did. But after reading so much about all the current issues in education around testing, I realize that the educational system I was a part of doesn’t really seem to still exist. I’m left feeling very afraid about the quality of education my child will receive in the testing culture that dominates NY public schools. I can and will opt-out to my heart’s content but if my child’s entire educational environment is geared towards test prep and test- taking what other options do I have as a public school parent to get the best educational experience for my child? I’d love to hear your and other’s thoughts on what parents should be doing for their children. Advocating for ed-reform is one thing – but what do I do in the meantime to benefit my child’s education while we’re waiting for the world to change?
Worried Parent: you ask good questions–if my child were still in public school (& she, too, attended excellent school districts in the ’90s, when all this nonsense started–in fact, she, herself, refused to take the PSAT when she was a junior in high school {“Why should I have to take it? I’m not taking the SAT!”} She went to a college, anyway, that wound up not taking test scores–so wasted time taking the ACT, which she agonized over), I’d be thinking the same. Something that you can do, aside from opting out, is talk to the teachers & try to find one(s) who are like-minded–that is, in some school districts (it’s true where we live), principals &/or teachers are more laissez-faire about the tests (we have at least one principal in Chicago who writes a blog, has spoken out against testing, doesn’t give a rat’s a__ about testing, & has a policy of running a school where teachers REALLY teach. Even if your principal is not like-minded, you can, I think, often find teachers in schools who are not–as Duane Swacker would say–GAGAs (“Go Along to Get Along”), close the classroom door, & teach their guts out. No small thing–it’s a tough one, but your child is, of course, worth the try to find that/those teacher(s). Ask parents who have had kids in the school your child will attend. Talk to & with parents. See if you have a local chapter of Parents Across America. Get together with like-minded parents. “Squeaky wheels get the oil” tends to work.
What you want may already be there–I hope so. If not–readers–what other suggestions can you give to Worried (aside from the obvious homeschooling, or try private school or…move)?
In California, some of us are told emphatically that class size does not matter. It’s a good thing, since every year we seem to have more “academic coaches” to teach the teachers, and fewer teachers to teach the kids….
Doesn’t matter–to whom?
I think there’s sarcasm in them thar hills.
Of course class size doesn’t matter — when you’re pitching computerized education for all. Look at Rocketship. <– Good stuff, that. Not. Money saving? Sure. They tell the lie until people accept it as true. When education is delivered by a screen, class size won't matter. Teachers won't matter. Location won't matter.
Then it’s Flowers for Algernon (Charly) time:
Education?
A TV in every room.
Well, now it would be a padlet or smart phone, and perhaps all of the edjukation is corporate propaganda. Enter the global pyramid scheme of the 0.1%.
Reduced class size will have a direct impact on co-location…….no can do!
In Ohio, we have John “break the teachers’ backs” Kasich. In a bold new stance, probably after many seconds of intense though and research, Kasich has proposed a solution to struggling schools. The new initiative is called “Leave the Lounge, Lil’ Lady” and embraces all the ideas Republicans have for education into a single reformy decree. All teacher lounges will now be eliminated. As these luxury suites of educational malpractice serve no measurable purpose, the lounges will now be turned into Teacher Re-education Centers. We can thank John Kasich and the Republicans for making Ohio great, again.
You-all might be interested in this book:
“The Prize” may well be one of the most important books on education to come along in years. It serves as a kind of corrective to the dominant narrative of school reformers across the country.”
I think it’s interesting that Zuckerberg changed his focus to donating to public schools and “wraparound” after his experience in Newark. I read once that his wife attended what sounded like “ordinary” public schools- in other words not really wealthy schools. I wonder if she had anything to do with that.
Wow, how thrilling to see that there is finally some coverage of what happened in Newark, instead of allowing the reformers to insist that it proved “money doesn’t help”. The reformers (i.e. “consultants” who believed in privatizing education and thus were rewarded with grant money to come up with a plan to undermine public schools instead of help them) made out handsomely — the kids in poverty and schools not so much.
And good for Alex Kotlowitz – who has spent decades reporting on the subject of poverty – not being fooled by the reformers rhetoric, as this review shows. It’s a shame that other writers — one of the worst is Jonathan Chait at NY Magazine — aren’t the least bit credulous and accept the reform industries press releases as gospel. Maybe the NY Times education editors will read their own paper’s book review section, but I won’t hold my breath.
I’m a teacher at a Renewal school and have classes with 34 students. Part of the reason for large class sizes is that my school has to accept all the students who register. The other part is that we now share our building with two small public schools that take an additional wing from us each year. Teachers and students are squeezed into tight places and we are forced to to give up gym space, art rooms, science labs, etc.
Thanks for the link, Chiara. I am going to get/read the book asap. Good news that Zuckerberg & his wife (who sounds wonderful) are 2 true philanthropists (as opposed to Gates, Broad & the numerous other villainthropists) not only giving back, but making sure that those really affected–parents, students & educators–have the say this time around. (I saw the deal go down on Oprah–ironically, while I was in Atlantic City {which, BTW, has lost some 8,000+ jobs–but, where are YOU, Christie?}–&, of course, knew that this money would be grossly misspent & given away to ed. profiteering vultures who could smell it a mile away.) As usual, kudos to Kotlowitz for writing this review & getting it into the reformy NYT. I’ve seen him/heard him speak, & he’s one of the greatest child advocates of our time.