Timeline and background on the request for an audit by the State Comptroller’s office of NYC’s use of the State class size reduction funds
On January 30, 2005, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Councilmember Robert Jackson, and State Senator Eric Schneiderman sent a letter, asking State Comptroller Alan Hevesi to perform an audit of the city’s use of the state class size reduction funding, referring to questions related to the city's reporting of class size averages and how many additional classrooms they have formed with the state funds. Here is a timeline and relevant documents to provide some background on this request.
September-October 2003: Parents report in emails and calls to Class Size Matters that class sizes have risen at their children’s schools. Because DOE does not submit information on average class sizes until the spring, and never reports on class size at the school level, it is difficult to confirm how serious and widespread this problem is.
October 2003: Class Size Matters asks the NYC Independent Budget Office to perform an analysis of average class size per grade and district for the current school year, particularly in grades K-3, as well as count how many total general education classrooms in grades K-3 have been added since the state class size reduction funding began in 1999-2000.
Spring of 2004: Before the IBO has completed its analysis, the DOE reports in a memo to the Panel on Education Policy that average class sizes decreased during the current school year in all grades K-6, while rising in grades 7-8. This data is later contained in the final Mayor’s Management Report. More specifically, DOE officials report that in Kindergarten, classes averaged 20.4 students during the 2002-3 school year, and declined to 20.3 during the 2003-4 school year. See DOE PEP memo posted here.
July 2004: IBO completes its analysis of class size data, as requested, and sends a letter and an excel file to Class Size Matters, summarizing its findings.
The IBO letter and excel file include the following information:
•
The average size of Kindergartens rose citywide in 2003-4 for the first time in six years since the state funding for class size reduction began. Moreover, despite falling enrollment in the early grades, average class sizes for grades K-3 increased in 15 out of the 34 New York City school districts. In only 14 school districts did class sizes in these grades actually decline, and five districts, average class sizes remained unchanged.
The average size of Kindergartens rose citywide in 2003-4 for the first time in six years since the state funding for class size reduction began. Moreover, despite falling enrollment in the early grades, average class sizes for grades K-3 increased in 15 out of the 34 New York City school districts. In only 14 school districts did class sizes in these grades actually decline, and five districts, average class sizes remained unchanged. •The IBO finds that in Kindergarten, class sizes rose from 20.7 to 20.9 children per class, from the 2002-3 to the 2003-2004 school year. Both these figures differ substantially from the official data reported by the New York City Department of Education in the Mayor’s Management Report and in the PEP memo, in which DOE reported that Kindergarten classes averaged 20.4 and 20.3 children per class during these years.
The IBO finds that in Kindergarten, class sizes rose from 20.7 to 20.9 children per class, from the 2002-3 to the 2003-2004 school year. Both these figures differ substantially from the official data reported by the New York City Department of Education in the Mayor’s Management Report and in the PEP memo, in which DOE reported that Kindergarten classes averaged 20.4 and 20.3 children per class during these years.•According to the IBO, because of the lack of progress in reducing class size, only 38% of Kindergarten students in NYC were in classes last year that met the state goal of 20 or less; only 33% of first and second graders, and only 28% of third graders were in classes of 20, despite declining enrollment and stable state funding.
According to the IBO, because of the lack of progress in reducing class size, only 38% of Kindergarten students in NYC were in classes last year that met the state goal of 20 or less; only 33% of first and second graders, and only 28% of third graders were in classes of 20, despite declining enrollment and stable state funding.•The lack of progress in reducing class size despite falling enrollment results from a sharp decline in the total number of classrooms in grades K-3 over the last three years. According to IBO data, the total number of general education classrooms in these grades decreased by over 600 since the 2000-2001 school year
The lack of progress in reducing class size despite falling enrollment results from a sharp decline in the total number of classrooms in grades K-3 over the last three years. According to IBO data, the total number of general education classrooms in these grades decreased by over 600 since the 2000-2001 school year•The IBO also finds that the city has released inaccurate figures for new classrooms formed, in their official reports to the State Education Department on the use of the class size reduction funds. As the IBO letter says, “… the city reported a higher number of new classes formed than IBO found in its analysis of the data.” Indeed, according to the IBO data, during the 2003-4 school year, NYC public schools had only 540 more classes in these grades than before the state program began, rather than the 1,586 that DOE claims to have formed with these funds.
The IBO also finds that the city has released inaccurate figures for new classrooms formed, in their official reports to the State Education Department on the use of the class size reduction funds. As the IBO letter says, “… the city reported a higher number of new classes formed than IBO found in its analysis of the data.” Indeed, according to the IBO data, during the 2003-4 school year, NYC public schools had only 540 more classes in these grades than before the state program began, rather than the 1,586 that DOE claims to have formed with these funds.The IBO letter is posted here:
The IBO excel files, showing class size averages and distributions, are here:
July-August 2004: After scrutinizing the IBO findings as well as the state regulations that pertain to the use of the class size reduction funds, Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters suspects that the decline in the total number of classrooms in K-3 for the last three years may violate the regulations, which suggest that districts cannot reduce the total number of such classrooms without contravening maintenance of effort provisions. See the relevant passage in the state regulations:
“Pursuant to the provisions of paragraph h of subdivision 37 of section 3602 of Education Law, a school district which spends less in local funds during the current school year than in the base year for the salaries and benefits of teachers in grades kindergarten through three, or which has fewer classrooms for grades kindergarten through three in the current school year than in the base year, or spends funds apportioned under this subdivision in an unauthorized manner, shall have its apportionment reduced in an amount equal to such deficiency in the current school year or in the succeeding school year, as determined by the commissioner. Local costs incurred in implementing a district plan pursuant to subdivision 37 of section 3602 of the Education Law and this section other than facility costs shall be ordinary contingent expenses.” [http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/nyc/EGRegs.html]
(According to elsewhere in the regulations: “Base year means the school year prior to the school year for which aid is being requested.” Since the state aid is requested every year by DOE, the base year appears to mean any year previous to the next.)
In essence, the IBO’s findings suggest that city may be using the state funds not to form additional classrooms to reduce class size, but to pay teachers to staff classes that would exist with or without the program. Indeed, in 2003-4, when the city was granted $88 million of state funds to reduce class size, NYC schools had about 400 fewer classrooms in grades K-3 than in the first year of the state program, when only $49.2 million of state class size funds were granted the city.
August- September 2004: Class Size Matters shares the IBO findings and the concerns that DOE may be inappropriately using the state class size reduction funds with NYC Councilmember Robert Jackson and State Senator Eric Schneiderman and their staffs.
September 21, 2004: Councilmember Jackson and Senator Schneiderman send a joint letter to Chancellor Klein of the Department of Education, asking him to explain the discrepancies between the IBO’s findings and DOE’s reports concerning class size averages and new classes formed in grades K-3. See letter to DOE posted here:
Subsequently, Class Size Matters shares the IBO findings with Speaker Miller’s staff, in order to alert them to the need to provide strict oversight for the use of the $35 million that the Council insisted be in the city’s budget for the current school year, supposed to be used to create 225 additional classrooms in grades K-3 to further reduce class size in these grades.
December 8, 2004: The DOE finally responds to the Jackson/ Schneiderman request for more information. In this letter, signed by Kathleen Grimm, Deputy Chancellor, DOE admits that the class size data they have previously released is inaccurate, because included in their calculations were “classes of long-term absent (LTA) students likely to be removed from a school’s register.” They also say that “DOE is in the process of revising its methodology to calculate class size as a result of the IBO analysis.”
In addition, though they do not deny that the total number of classrooms for grades K-3 has
declined by more than 600 over the course of the last three years, they insist that they have formed exactly 1,586 additional classes in these grades for the last three years, with shifting amounts of state, city, and federal funds. In the letter, they continually refer to 1998-9, or the year before the state class size reduction funding began, as the base year, though the state regulations appear to say otherwise.
Finally, they claim that “when the program was eliminated in previous State Executive Budgets the Chancellor and the Mayor fought vigorously to reinstate EGCSR (Early Grade Class Size Reduction),” when actually, for the last few years, DOE has vigorously lobbied to have this funding eliminated as a categorical program. The DOE letter is posted below.
January 30, 2005: Given the questions that remain unresolved, relating to whether the city has inappropriately used the state class size reduction funds, Councilmember Jackson, Senator Schneiderman and Speaker Miller send a joint letter to State Comptroller Hevesi, requesting that his office perform an audit of New York City’s use of state class size reduction funds, to ascertain whether the full results and benefits of the program are being achieved, and whether the NYC Department of Education is fully complying with all of the state law and regulations applicable to the program.
