When Will Class Sizes Decrease?

One of the legacies of Michael Bloomberg are large class sizes.  The ex Mayor saw no problem in large class sizes as he refused to spend money on more teachers and if it was up to him, class sizes would double and reduce the teaching staff by 50%.

When Bill de Blasio became Mayor one of his campaign promises was to reduce class sizes.  However, he has failed to live up to his promise and class size are as high as under Mayor Bloomberg.  New York City has the highest class sizes in the State.

Now that Mayor De Blasio is in his second term and has had two Chancellors, don't look for any class size reductions for the Mayor's final two years in office.

Will The New Contract Stop Oversized Classes? I Hope So

One of the potential improvements of the new contract is the elimination of oversized classes in a timely period.  The new UFT contract requires that oversized classrooms must be quickly arbitrated.

Previously, schools could apply for exemptions for class sizes, which ranged from 16 for pre- kindergarten to 34 in high schools.  When the union did push for arbitration, the arbitration could take months to be scheduled and very little was accomplished. See the frustration NYC Educator had in his school.

Under the new contract the union can take the DOE to an arbitrator immediately.  If the arbitrator sides with the union, the decision is binding,.  The overcrowded class must be lowered to contractual limits within 5 days. First, any oversized class will be submitted to the Superintendent to resolve, if that fails, then there will be immediate arbitration to address the overcrowded classroom.  No longer can the DOE delay until the issue becomes irrelevant.

It looks like the union contract adequately handles the oversized classroom issue.  However, let's see if the DOE actually abides by it and if not, what will the UFT do about it?

Smaller Class Sizes Improve Student Academics, Except When They Get New Teachers.

A ground breaking study on the effects of class size on student academics in the New York City classroom have shown that smaller class sizes result in improved student academic learning.  However, there was one condition when small er class sizes did not show any meaningful student academic improvement.  When the class was subject to a "newbie" teacher.  Interestingly,  Chalkbeat spun the study to claim that smaller class sizes did not necessarily show student academic achievement, despite the study's conclusion that it does.

The study took data from 473 schools from 2009-14 and concluded the following:

• Looking at schools near the cap between 2009 and 2014, Gilraine found that reducing class size by an average of four students produced gains in reading and math scores equivalent to roughly two and a half months of extra learning. 

•  The classes that shrank by bringing in a new teacher saw essentially no boost in student achievement. And since roughly 50 percent of the classes Gilraine examined depended on newly hired teachers, the overall effect of the class size reductions was cut in half. 

•  Though Gilraine did not rigorously assess why half of these class size reductions didn’t boost student learning, he said there are a couple of likely reasons. For one, newly hired teachers may be less experienced or lower quality. 

I might add that "newbie" teachers have a steep learning curve when it comes to classroom management, curriculum  knowledge, and their lack of experience in the New York City classroom usually results in the students suffering as the "newbie" teachers feels his and her way through the art of effective instruction.  Therefore, its no surprise that the introduction of a "newbie " teacher would negate the potential academic improvement of smaller class sizes.  In addition, under Chancellor Carmen Farina,  the DOE allows for teachers uncertified in the subject area they instruct in and still  insist on under funding the schools while using the destructive "fair student funding" formula that hurts student academic achievement.Too bad, the DOE and their principals don't bother to read these important studies.  Instead, they continue to implement policies and hiring practices that put "children last".

I Support Lower Class Sizes And A Certified Teacher In The Subject Area Being Taught.

I'm glad to see that a group of parents, along with Class Size Matters, Alliance Of Quality Education and Public Advocate Letitcia James has filed a complaint that the DOE is violating the 2007 CFE agreement that was supposed to reduce class sizes.  The DOE, rather than reduce class sizes, actually saw trhem increase since 2007.  Despite Mayor elect Bill de Blasio's campaign promise to reduce class size in the New York City Public Schools, his appointed Chancellor, Carmen Farina,  actually allowed class sizes to increase, especially in K-3 grades which has increased an astounding 15%!

Part and parcel with the highest class sizes in New York State is the DOE's tact approval to allow schools to use teachers not certified in the subject their assigned to instruct students in.  This is especially true in the Middle Schools and in Earth Science, a Regents course in both Middle and High School.  If parents knew that uncertified teachers were instructing their students, especially in a Regents subject, they would be up in arms and claiming educational neglect. In addition, most schools, to save on hiring Science teachers, have gone to an educationally inferior 4-1 program when the Regents is based upon a 5-1 program.  The result is a lowering of Regents scores for schools who have a 4-1 program.  How is that good for students?  Its not of course.

Finally, how many ICT classes fail to have a certified Special Education teacher as a co-teacher?  Far too many I'm afraid.  Moreover, how many limit the ICT classes to 12 or less students with IEPs and are they capable of handling a large class?  Further, are these students getting the professional support they are entitled too?  My experience tells me that many of the Special Education students are underserved and some, with more severe disabilities, need to be in a self-contained environment and not large class settings where they struggle mightily to academically survive..

Now it seems that inexplicably, school budgets have been reduced from 92% of their fair funding to 90% as the DOE failed to account for rising staff salaries and blame the already tight budget and the further reductions on the union contract and not on their bloated Bureaucracy.  Expect class sizes to be at contract maximums, teachers pushed to teach a "sixth class",  and pressure to remove veteran teachers from the school's payroll by filing 3020-a charges or harassing them into retirement.  Furthermore, look for shady administrators to cut corners by not providing services to Special Education students and using inexpensive and uncertified "newbies" to teach the most needy of students. Instead of solving these problems, expect it to continue until the Mayor removes Chancellor Carmen Farina and her Bloomberg era policymakers and selects a leader who puts education first.

The DOE Sees Nothing Wrong With Large Class Sizes And Fair Student Funding.

This week the NYC Council's Education Committee held hearings on teacher recruitment and retention at City Hall. Appearing for the DOE was Amy Way at the DOE's Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality and Anna Commitante, Senior Executive Director of the Office of Curriculum. Both DOE Bureaucrats faithfully echoed Chancellor Carmen Farina's famous statements that "80 hours of rigorous professional development weekly" and  "high-quality curricula" is the best strategy to attract and retain teachers.  Of course, most school-based professional development has been a colossal waste of time and the disconnect between the graduation rate and the "college and career readiness" rates show that students are graduating unprepared for college or the job market.

When asked by committee members what other strategies the DOE was implementing to stop high teacher turnover, especially in the high poverty schools, the DOE response was to push for "professional learning communities".  A non-starter to the committee members. At no point did either DOE official mention lower class sizes despite the many studies that show that lower class sizes stems he flight of teachers from schools.  In fact, when asked about any policy to lower class sizes, the two DOE officials simply did not respond.

Another committee member wanted to know how can the DOE expect academic improvement at Renewal schools when classes have 30 or more students and cannot attract veteran teachers to mentor the largely inexperienced teaching staff? The best line was if you child was sick, would you take him or her to a Renewal Hospital to be treated? The DOE response was silence.

The chairman of the Education Committee Danny Dromm, a former middle school teacher, correctly pointed out that lower class sizes and clear student discipline rules that are strictly enforced are needed to keep teachers from fleeing the NYC classroom. However, the DOE seems to ignore these proven strategies and their failure to listen and respond to teacher complaints is the primary factor of teacher dissatisfaction and the cause for the teacher retention problem.

For Mr Dromm, the most disturbing DOE response was about "Fair Student Funding" and how it hurts the schools.  He even suggested that the City Council may pass a resolution to eliminate the Fair Student Funding from school budgets.  Mr. Dromm stated that the Fair Student Funding incentives principals to hire inexpensive "newbie" teachers while trying to offload veterans from their budget. The DOE response, was that they see no problem with the school-based Fair Student Funding.

A more through analysis of the hearing can be found at the New York City Public School Parents blog.

Class Sizes Continue To Increase Under Mayor Bill De Blasio.

One of Bill de Blasio's campaign promises was to reduce class sizes and no longer make New York City the school system with the largest class sizes in the State.  Well the latest data has shown how hollow the Mayor's class size promise is.  A recently published study has shown that there has been a significant increase in class sizes, across the board, with the greatest increases occurring in the younger grades. The study prepared by the Education Law Center shows that class sizes continued to increase in 2016 and violates the 2007 City class size limits under State law.  In fact, 80% of the city public school students are in classes that exceeded the State limit.

In 2007, city Education Department officials followed state law in setting average class size goals of 19.9 students for kindergarten through third grade, 22.9 students for fourth through eighth grade and 24.5 students for high school.

Therefore, looking at the data the city public schools are exceeding class size limits by the following percentages for the 2016 school year.:

Early Elementary........................24%
Elementary/Middle School............14%
High School..............................11%

Promises, promises, how false they are when Mayor Bill de Blasio makes them/

The Real Problems In The New York City Public Schools.

In the New York Daily News today, Sol Stern wrote an opinion piece on the problems with the New York City Public Schools.  While I agreed with his part on the use of the useless and ideologically driven Lucy Calkins progressive model of learning that then Deputy Chancellors Diana Lamm and Carmen Farina championed, yes the same Carmen Farina who is known as the disappointing Chancellor of today. However, he also blamed the teachers union contract and their lock-step pay  raises as a major impediment for the failure of the public schools. What he failed to address was the large class sizes, the DOE policy that encourages principals to hire" the cheapest and not the best teachers for their school", and the deteriorating quality of school administrators, many of them coming from the failed "Leadership Academy".  Finally, Sol Stern failed to point out the bloated DOE budget that dramatically increases every year while school budgets remain frozen at 2012 levels and are 14% below the pre-recession 2008 levels.

Class Size:  
Probably the most important factor in improving student academic achievement as the lower class sizes that allow for more individual instruction. a less noisy environment, and the ability of a teacher to properly evaluation each student in a timely matter.  Unfortunately New York City Public Schools have the highest class sizes in the State and despite assurance that class size would go down during the Bill de Blasio Administration, it hasn't.

Quality Teachers:
In 2005 the DOE imposed the "fair student funding" policy on the schools which forced principals to seriously consider, salary before hiring a teacher.  By 2008 as school budgets tightened and money was scarce, the principals were forced to hire "newbie" teachers to stretch their budget.   Some worked out, most did not or left the school soon after (84% of the teachers were no longer teaching in the same school they started in five years later).  The high teacher turnover and steep learning curve meant less effective teachers and spelled disaster for the unfortunate students exposed to this unstable school environment.

Principals:
One of the little talked about problems with the New York City Public Schools is the poor quality of principals who are in charge of their schools.  The Leadership Academy taught educators that they should be the CEO of their school and accepted applicants with little or no classroom experience.  While Carmen Farina has made it more difficult to apply without the proper educational credentials, she has made exceptions.  Regardless, 20% of the principals in the New York City Public Schools are "Leadership Academy principals".  Worse, is the DOE continues to protect these bad, dangerous, and vindictive principals, despite the many problems associated with their school oversight.  Just look at the allegations against Principal Namita Dwarka of William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens and the many problems there, yet she is still in charge.  Even in today's the New York Post reported on another vindictive action her administration did to a thirty year veteran teacher.

Merit Pay:
Sol Stern falls into the trap that if only merit pay was implemented, then teachers would work harder and the students will achieve academic success.  Yet Mr. Stern fails to show any evidence that merit pay works in the last century and the reason for that is there is no study that showed merit pay improved teacher and student performance!  The reason is that there is a flawed assumption that dangling a few thousand dollars will make teachers work harder.  The fact is that most teachers want their children to succeed and work very hard to help them. Giving them a couple of thousand dollars will not make teachers work any harder.

Bloated DOE Bureaucracy:
While already tight school budgets have remain frozen since 2012 and "fair student funding" has limited principals to hiring inexperienced teachers to sacrifice quality for quantity, the Central Bureaucracy continues to consume more and more money. while forcing the schools to pick up more of the cost for the school support staff that was once part of the DOE Central Bureaucracy.  For this school year (2016) the DOE budget is 27.2 billion dollars while it was only 19.2 billion dollars in 2012.  That means there was a 42% increased in funds coming to the DOE while school budgets remained frozen during the same time period.  Just imagine if the schools received a 42% increase.  They could hire experienced teachers, reduce class sizes, and provide additional resources.

Poverty & Family:
Let's not forget that the 500 pound gorilla in the schools, the deep poverty and dysfunctional family that is a major reason why many students struggle academically and until those two issues are addressed and solved, the others only add to the lack of student academic achievement.

Mr. Stern maybe you need to rethink your article and see what the real problems are in the New York City Public Schools.