January 9, 2007
Good stories in both the Daily news and the SI advance today about the new high school class size information, released almost two months after the legal deadline by the administration.
Though in these articles, the administration claims they have reduced average class size in high schools by three students per class, there is simply no evidence for this in either state or city data.
In fact, the latest available state data shows average HS class sizes going up, not down in most subjects.
What the new DOE report reveals instead is that either class sizes have risen dramatically in City schools this year, or more likely, the city has been reporting HS class size averages much lower than they actually were for many years – with the city claiming that HS class sizes averaged only 26 (For example, the latest MMR reports this figure at 26.2 for last year.)
Now, the DOE reveals that the average class sizes citywide in HS range from 27.3 (ninth grade English) to 28.9 (10th grade Social science and Science.) High school class sizes are largest on average in SI and Queens – with most subjects and grades at 29 or 30. We believe that these figures are probably still too low, since the state consistently reports larger class sizes than this for most HS classes in NYC.
Moreover, during the current year, according to the new DOE data, there are many high schools where the class sizes are ridiculously high – among them, Enterprise, Business and Technology HS in Brooklyn– where 10th and 11th grade English average 43.5-46.5 students per class, and at the Richard Green HS of teaching in Manhattan, where Social studies classes in 10-12th grades average 41.9., 37.5 and 37 students.
These class sizes exceed the union contractual limits. There are also numerous failing HS schools where classes are at 30 or larger.
In any case, in almost all high schools in NYC class sizes are too large to give students a fair chance at success, and are much bigger than high school classes in the rest of the state, which average only 20-22, depending on the subject and grade.
It is no wonder that so many of our high school students are failing, and that our four year graduation rates are only 43.5%, according to the state.
The sad fact is that the city has no plans to reduce high school class sizes, even with as much as $5 billion in additional CFE funds – even though our highest court said that NYC students were deprived of their constitutional right to an adequate education because of their excessive class sizes, and that there was “a meaningful correlation between the large classes in City schools and poor academic achievement and high dropout rates.”
For more on K-8 class sizes , released in November, see below.
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Leonie Haimson
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320
leonie@att.net
www.classsizematters.org
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November 16, 2006
The class size files released by DOE yesterday to the City Council are now posted above.
They should be available some time today on the DOE website as well.
“It is a relief that after all these years we are finally being given access to this critical data, after being the only school system in the state in which parents were denied information about the class sizes in their own school and other schools throughout the city,” says Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a citywide advocacy group with members in all five boroughs.
“In response to a law passed by the City Council last year, the Department of Education has released these figures for elementary and middle schools for the first time, though not yet for high schools, even though the legal deadline to report this information was yesterday.”
As expected, the data shows that class sizes continue to be excessive in schools throughout the system – with average class size about 10-30% larger than in the rest of the state.
We cannot be sure, of course, that this data is correct; the state consistently finds larger class sizes in city schools than the DOE itself reports. Two years ago, DOE officials admitted that they had chronically released inaccurate class size information by including phantom classes in their calculations.
But even assuming this information is accurate, we have made little or no progress over the last few years.
In K-3, our class size averages remain significantly above the state goal of 20, t instead of 19.1, which we would have reached two years ago if the city had been using the state class size funds according to law, as the State Comptroller pointed out in an audit last year.
The citywide class size average of 20.8 in Kindergarten is exactly what it was four years ago, despite nearly $100 million in annual state funds and declining enrollment. 1st grade class sizes have risen slightly from last year.
Citywide averages also hide significant differences between boroughs and districts. In K-2, Bronx and Queens have the highest class sizes, with Manhattan tied with Queens for the largest average classes in 3rd grade. In grades 4-8, Staten Island class sizes are highest– and considerably larger than in either Queens or the Bronx.
Also, there are huge disparities from school to school, even in the early grades, with hundreds of elementary schools where classes remain 28 and above.
Average class sizes remain especially large in the middle grades throughout the city, even in troubled schools with large numbers of poor students, contributing to low and stagnant achievement rates in these grades, and eventually, high dropout rates. For examples of low-performing middle schools with extremely large class sizes, see below.
As the audit from the state comptroller pointed out, by adjusting attendance zones, DoE could bring down class sizes much more effectively across the board.
Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class size Matters: “As the audit from the state comptroller pointed out last year, by adjusting attendance zones, DoE could bring down class sizes much more effectively across the board. It is also very disappointing that the city has not yet released the high school class size figures, with the deadline of today as required by law. They’ve had almost a year to figure out how to do this, so they should have been able to comply. Is it really that they don’t have the numbers, or are they waiting for the registers “to settle down” as they often put it, which actually means waiting until more students drop out of school and to bring down class sizes that way?”
Patrick Sullivan, district 2 parent: “As a father of children in elementary school classes of 28, I’m outraged that the Mayor remains indifferent to this issue. State courts have found the excessive class sizes in our schools to be unconstitutional and have ordered increased funding to rectify the situation. Yet because the Mayor refuses to address class size adequately even given these additional funds, we must now call on Governor-elect Spitzer and the State Legislature to compel the Department of Education to reduce school and classroom overcrowding and provide reasonable class sizes for our children.”
