Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for July 5, 2008 "INTIMATE" CLASSROOMS

A rant...nipped in the bud.

When my eyes skimmed the "tease" for the article below, my finger leapt to the keyboard...

• School project aimed at smaller student groupings
• In an effort to raise academic achievement and foster intimate classrooms

Classes would remain intact through 2nd grade

By Maureen Magee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO — In an effort to raise academic achievement and foster intimate classrooms, 30 San Diego elementary schools will trim class sizes and change the way they group their youngest students.

Drawing from a landmark Tennessee study, the San Diego Unified School District will randomly assign students to kindergarten and keep those classes of children intact through the second grade.

Under the pilot program set to begin in September, the 30 elementary schools will cut class sizes from 20 to about 15 students per teacher in kindergarten, first and second grades. Another 30 elementary schools will participate in the study without reducing class sizes.

The idea is to keep the small groups of children together to establish continuity among students. Parents and teachers would no longer have a say in student assignments, which would become random to ensure that all classes have the same mix of various student populations: high achievers, low performers and those with language barriers.

“It will help build a sense of community among the kids and help them develop more meaningful relationships,” said San Diego district Superintendent Terry Grier, who implemented a similar initiative while he was superintendent in Guilford County, N.C. “Anyone who doesn't want to participate in this doesn't have to.”

Initially, Grier planned to launch the plan districtwide. But after some parents and educators complained, school board members called for a trial run.

“We don't want to repeat the perception that this is a one-size-fits-all district,” district trustee Mitz Lee said.

Some parents worry that children who were in an unusually rowdy class would suffer by staying together for several years. Others are concerned that their children would be hurt socially if their exposure to other children on campus were limited.

Grier's pilot project will involve 60 yet-to-be-identified elementary schools where poverty and low student achievement prevail – and where classroom space permits. Although the Tennessee study showed that all students benefit from the arrangement, poor and minority children made the most gains.

University of California San Diego professor and researcher Julian Betts will monitor the participating schools, which will be divided into two study groups.

All of the schools will make random student assignments in kindergarten. Half the schools will trim class sizes to about 15 students, while the other 30 will maintain about 20 students per teacher.

Both of the 30-campus study groups will keep classes of students together from kindergarten through second grade in half of their schools. The other schools will continue the usual practice of reassigning children at the end of a school year.

The superintendent expects to see academic gains from the study in about two years, after the 2008-09 kindergartners finish the first grade. Eventually, Grier would like to expand the class-size-reduction plan districtwide.

Grier is relying on findings of the Tennessee STAR – Student Teacher Achievement Ratio – project, which was conducted from 1985 to 1989 and looked at the benefits of assigning a diverse cross section of children in small classes that stay together.

“You cannot continue to separate poor performers. Those kids need to have good role models and hear what good answers are,” said Charles Achilles, one of the chief researchers on the project.

The STAR project tracked students for years after the study period. Researchers found that the students not only outperformed their peers who didn't participate, but that they also had improved classroom behavior. What's more, the students went on to take more advanced-placement courses in high school, graduate at higher rates and take college-entrance exams at higher rates.

The practice of keeping groups of children together isn't new. Some private schools and European public schools have been doing it for years.

“A lot of Europeans are shocked that kids are uprooted so quickly,” said Stina Lake, whose two children will enter first and third grades at La Jolla Elementary School in the fall.

“There are benefits. Kids who are outgoing might do well no matter what, but kids who are not outgoing could benefit tremendously from being in the same group,” said Lake, who grew up in Sweden and attended school with the same class of children year after year.

Trimming class sizes to accommodate the study will require an estimated 110 additional teachers, jobs that will be filled from a pool of about 150 instructors who have yet to receive their fall assignments.