To Save Money, Some Schools In Region Plan Bigger Classes

In the 1980s, the influential Tennessee Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio study tracked more than 7,000 students in 79 schools who were randomly assigned from kindergarten through third grade into one of three types of classes: small, with 13 to 17 students; regular, with 22 to 25 students; or regular, with a teacher and a teacher's aide. The study found that students who are taught in small classes in early grades were more successful in later years and that poor and African American students made larger gains.

The study drove class-size reduction efforts in many places. In 1996, California gave schools incentives to limit classes to 20 students for the earliest grades, although many schools, especially in poor areas, resorted to hiring uncertified teachers. Florida is struggling to implement the nation's strictest class-size law, which limits classes to 18 students in early years and 25 in high school. Schools that do not comply face financial penalties.

Douglas D. Ready, an assistant professor at Columbia University Teachers College, said reducing the number of students in a class is not a panacea. Schools also need enough qualified teachers, the right training, and political and financial support, he said. Although most researchers say that teacher quality is more important than class size to student achievement, Ready said, no one knows a surefire way to evaluate good teachers or to draw them into the classroom.

In Fairfax, teachers faced the "bitter choice" this year of whether to lobby for a 3 percent cost-of-living salary increase or for maintaining class size, said Leonard Bumbaca, president of the 6,500-member Fairfax Education Association. Teachers chose to rally behind higher pay.

"The extra half-student won't sink the program," Bumbaca said. "We still think the priorities should be holding onto our quality people." But it's a delicate balance, he said, because smaller class sizes are important for retaining teachers.

Many experts say that, given the high cost of small classes, the best policy is to reduce class size for the children who need them most, namely those who are young and from families in poverty.

Beginning in the 2004-05 school year, Fairfax adopted a formula that shifted more teachers to elementary and middle schools with higher rates of students living in poverty or learning English as a second language. Among the county's 137 elementary schools, the average class size in grades one to three ranged from 15 to 26. Any class-size increase this year, which the School Board has yet to approve, would affect all grades but would be felt differently across the county.

School officials said smaller schools, with smaller staffs and therefore less flexibility, are likely to be hit harder. At Little Run Elementary, with fewer than 400 students, Janice Peterson and other parents say they worry that fewer teachers could mean that some classes have combined grade levels.

A Fairfax proposal to reduce the number of instructional assistants, at a savings of almost $2 million, also would limit the amount of help available for larger classes.

Peterson recently visited a private school, where she was impressed to see classes of 14 students. Teachers in small classes "have time to give individual attention to students," she said. In much larger classes, "I don't think it's physically possible."