DOE flouts state class-size reduction mandates

Apr 28, 2008 4:12 PM

Despite receiving $152.7 million in new state funds meant to lower class sizes, the New York City Department of Education has failed to implement a comprehensive class size reduction plan to meet state goals and has allowed class sizes to rise at a third of the city schools receiving the funds, according to a report by the United Federation of Teachers that was released on April 28.

Read the full report here.

The analysis of Department of Education class size data shows:

• Nearly half (48.5%) of 390 elementary and middle schools that received state class size reduction funds did not lower class sizes. In fact, class sizes actually increased at 34 percent of those targeted schools.
• At 43 percent of schools citywide with kindergarten-through-8^th grades, class sizes increased.
• About 60 percent of middle schools failed to meet state class size reduction targets.
• In large high schools with 1,500-plus students there were four more students per class on average than in small schools with fewer than 1,500 students.
• Little progress was made in lowering class sizes in schools that are struggling academically – the very ones that were supposed to be helped first by the additional funding. In low-performing city elementary and middle schools on the state’s list of Schools In Need of Improvement and Schools Requiring Academic Progress (SINI/SRAP), 51 percent saw some decreases in class size but 42 percent saw class sizes increase.

New Yorkers for Smaller Classes – a coalition that includes, among others, Class Size Matters, the Hispanic Federation, the New York City Branch of the NAACP and the UFT – faulted the DOE for not making significant class size reduction a priority.

“While the DOE paid lip service to these legal commitments, its class size reduction plan failed to adopt specific goals and thereby failed to meet the legislators’ and the governor’s intent because the DOE had different spending priorities,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten. “This study shows that the DOE is not being accountable for spending resources the way they were intended. Now, what will happen next school year? The state has kept its promise to school children and has directed more resources for lowering class size, but given the current city education cuts, will the DOE simply allow them to be used to mask the city budget cuts, thus once again shortchanging kids and flouting accountability?"

“This report confirms what parents have long suspected – there has been little progress in lowering class size because of a lack of accountability on the part of the DOE,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. “At the current glacial rate of decline, it will be 10 to 30 years before the city reaches its targets. This is not acceptable. We call on the City Comptroller to review the use of these critical funds, and the state to enforce compliance.”

“It has been clear to many of us who have fought overcrowding in our public school classrooms that smaller class sizes is not a priority for the administration,” said Lillian Rodriguez Lopez, president of the Hispanic Federation, adding, “How can we applaud smaller classes in charter schools and smaller high schools yet deny them to the majority of students in New York City public schools?”

“We fought long and hard in court and in the streets for the city to get a fair share of state education funding,” said Hazel Dukes, president of the New York State conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “But the city is misspending these funds under the state Contracts for Excellence.”

State must make city do a better job

The city’s dismal performance prompted the union to seek state intervention by asking the State Education Department to direct the city to do a better job of spending state funds allocated for lowering class size in city public schools. Weingarten recently sent a letter to State Education Department Senior Deputy Commissioner Johanna Duncan-Poitier urging the state to tighten regulations meant to force the city to meet class size reduction goals.

The city Department of Education, which is required by statute to reduce average class size, and the State Education Department agreed on a framework for the reduction of average class sizes for the 2007-08 school year. The target is an average of 20.7 students in grades K-3 and 24.8 students in grades 4-12 this year, and averages of 20 students in grades K-3 and 23 students in grades 4-12 within five years.

The report is based on an independent analysis and review of the city’s class size reduction program for this school year commissioned by the UFT. The analysis was conducted by independent researcher John Tapper, an adjunct professor of education statistics at the University of Vermont and a doctoral candidate at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education.

Using DOE data, the study examined average class sizes for this year and last year as well as the distribution of class sizes. In one key area, the study examined schools with K-8 grades that were allocated at least $50,000 (roughly the minimum needed to hire one additional teacher) or more to reduce class size. The findings show:

• Comparing current year class sizes to those of last year, the UFT’s analysis found that of the 390 schools provided with funds specifically allocated for class size reduction under the Contracts for Excellence, only a little more than half (201) actually reduced class size by more than .25 students per class. In fact, 132 (34%) actually increased class sizes and another 57 schools (14.6%) remained unchanged.
• In all NYC public schools, 43% of K-8 classes actually increased in size and in some city school districts that figure is far larger. In Districts 8, 11 and 12 in the Bronx, for example, 48 to 49% of classes actually grew.
• Half of kindergarten classes in the city this year are larger than the goal of 20.7 students set by the DOE and the SED for 2007-08, and in grades 1-3 at least 54% of classes exceed 20.7.
• In grades 6-8, where achievement lags at least in part because of oversized classes, 56%, 62% and 61% of all classes, respectively, exceed the 24.8 target set by the contract for this year.
• In some school districts, notably Districts 20, 22, 26 and 28 in Brooklyn and Queens, average high school classes exceed 28 students and are closer to 30 or more in all four core academic classes (English, math, science and social studies).
• While half of the city schools on the state’s list of Schools In Need of Improvement decreased class size this year, half did not.

Recommendations

As a result of the report, the Coalition calls for:

• Stricter state oversight to achieve real class size reductions. The New York State Education Department and the Regents should tighten their oversight and enforcement of the class size reduction program to ensure that the city meets its annual class size targets or risk sanctions for non-compliance.
• A review by the City Comptroller. The comptroller should review the DOE’s use of state funds for class size reduction to determine how the city is actually using these critical dollars.
• A stronger state law to achieve real class size reductions. If the DOE continues to fail to meet its class size obligations – either in terms of accurately reporting class sizes and/or the number of classes provided or fails to make adequate progress toward its class size goals – the state Legislature should amend the law to require more forceful action.
• Caps instead of averages. The state should require class size caps in each school or class size averages by grade per school because even if the city eventually achieves the averages they establish, in too many schools class sizes are likely to far exceed what students need for a good chance to learn.
• Transparent reporting. The city should institute a standard and transparent reporting process that will yield accurate class sizes in all grades, as well as the total number of classes and teachers in core academic subjects, as required by city and state law.