EDUCATION
Schools get creative to shrink classrooms
This week, the state will conduct its official count of students. Will South Florida schools be in compliance with voter-mandated limitations on classroom size?
BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY AND CARLI TEPROFF
KMCGRORY@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Six weeks into the school year, thousands of students in Broward County schools are being transferred into a new classroom with a new teacher.
Some fourth- and fifth-graders in Miami-Dade schools are being clumped into one class.
And media specialists, guidance counselors, teacher trainers and athletic directors in both districts are working double duty teaching classes.
The Broward and Miami-Dade school systems are relying on these unconventional strategies to help meet voter-mandated class size limits, which cap the number of students in English, social studies, math and science classes. This week, the state will take its official student count, and districts not in compliance will be slapped with million-dollar fines.
Is this what voters had in mind in 2002 when they passed the class size amendment?
``It's a perversion of the amendment,'' Southwood Middle School parent J.B. Harris said. ``It literally tortures the intent of the law.''
School administrators say their hands are tied.
``[We] are sworn to uphold the Constitution,'' said Richard Hinds, chief financial officer for the Miami-Dade district. ``But we really don't have enough money to do it. And at the same time, we have to make decisions that are good for students. It's a balancing act.''
Under the Class Size Amendment, kindergarten through third-grade classes are limited to 18 students per teacher. Fourth- through eighth-grade classes may have 22; high-school classes up to 25.
The rules do not apply to courses like physical education or elective classes like band and debate.
Last year, schools were allowed to go slightly over the limit, so long as their average class size was in compliance. This year, however, each individual classroom in Florida must meet the requirement.
Local superintendents say they just might pull it off.
``We are going to be as close as we possibly can be, if not on target,'' Broward Superintendent Jim Notter said.
To that end, Broward County hired 478 teachers last week at a job fair, after its School Board voted to raise taxes to help pay for them.
``What is unfortunate, though, is that there is going to be a lot of rescheduling in the next week or so,'' Broward School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb said.
Miami-Dade has also hired about 500 teachers using money from the state and from the federal jobs bill.
Now, more than 95 percent of classrooms districtwide meet the caps, Assistant Superintendent Dan Tosado said.
To reach 100 percent compliance, Miami-Dade would need to spend an additional $28 million -- or cut programs like art, music and gifted education. Senior administrators say they are best serving children by staying at 95 percent.
From start to finish, the process of shrinking class sizes has been a challenge.
When voters first approved the measure, public coffers were flush. But the economy crashed and the state cut back on funding for the Class Size Amendment. The rules, however, stayed the same.
The price tag attached to meeting the requirements: $50 million in Miami-Dade; $70 million in Broward.
There's also been the added difficulty of having transient students.
Case in point: Jack Gordon Elementary in Southwest Miami-Dade had the maximum number of students in each fourth-grade classroom.
Then triplets showed up.
``You get one kid and you can be out of balance,'' Broward's Notter said.
Some schools have had to combine students from different grade levels into a single class. Combination classes can be challenging for the students and for the teacher, who has to give two different lessons at the same time.
At Jack Gordon, one classroom has both fourth and fifth graders.
``The fourth-grade parents are happy because their children are exposed to parts of the fifth-grade curriculum,'' Principal Caleb Lopez said.
``But for the fifth-grade parents, it's a little bit harder to swallow.''
Lopez said he has found a way to hire another teacher by cutting back on school supplies. But he isn't looking forward to shuffling students around so late in the school year.
Ludlam Elementary Principal Georgette Menocal said she was able to avoid combination classes by having the counselor, media specialist and reading coach serve as part-time teachers.
As a result, students won't be able to spend as much time in the media center or in group sessions with their counselor.
Some Miami-Dade schools have embraced the co-teaching model, meaning classrooms have double the number of students and two teachers. But at times, one of the teachers is needed in another classroom, leaving the other alone with three dozen children.
``I'm sure it's a violation of safety codes to cram this many children into a classroom,'' said Harris, whose daughter is in a class taught by two teachers at Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay.
The effect is also being felt on elective classes, which are not subject to the caps. Because teachers must teach more sections of core courses like English and math, some schools can't offer as many Advanced Placement courses. The few AP classes they offer, not subject to the limits, are brimming with students.
School district administrators acknowledge the concerns.
``This has been a significantly disruptive process,'' said Tosado, the Miami-Dade assistant superintendent. ``But this is something that we had to deploy. . . . The alternatives would have been the elimination of whole classes of instruction.''
Parents will have another chance to have their say next month.
Taking stock of the bleak economic outlook, state lawmakers put the class size measure back on the ballot, giving voters the option to relax the guidelines.
It will take more than 60 percent of the November vote to change the mandate. The state association of superintendents, for one, supports relaxing the caps. CEO Bill Montford has said schools need the the wiggle room -- and points to cases of class size gone awry as proof.
``There needs to be some flexibility so that we can use our professional judgment and do what's best for children,'' said Menocal, the Ludlam Elementary principal.
But the state teachers' union believes the amendment should stay as is -- and that Florida lawmakers must be held responsible for fully funding it.
Beverly Dowell, a teacher at Treasure Island Elementary in North Bay Village, agrees.
``The voters made an educated decision when they voted for the Class Size Amendment,'' she said. ``Now the state should have to pay for it.''
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/09/v-fullstory/1866059/schools-get-creative-to-shrink.html#ixzz14BqbAohZ
No comments:
Post a Comment