Growls

The Arlington Public Schools (APS) recently completed a budget survey, available as a FY 2011 budget document on the APS website. Yesterday, Scott McCaffrey reported the “plan to increase class sizes (is) not popular among some in the community” for an online story posted on the Arlington Sun Gazette website. McCaffrey writes:

“Even as county school officials gear up to increase class sizes in an effort to close a whopping budget gap, a community survey finds most respondents think such a move would be a bad idea.

About 54 percent of nearly 3,600 respondents to a survey conducted by Arlington Public “Schools said the school system should not consider increasing class sizes as it grapples to deal with a budget deficit that next year could swell to nearly 10 percent of its $450 million annual budget.

“Superintendent Patrick Murphy won’t propose his budget to School Board members until late February, but signs are already appearing that class sizes may go up slightly in order to address the budget shortfall.”

That said, it’s understandable that parents and educators might want to see smaller class sizes, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at the FY 2010 Washington Area Boards of Education (WABE) Guide.

Page 28 of the latest WABE provides the Average Class Size both by classroom teachers and by “teacher-scale” positions, which includes “classroom teachers and other teachers such as ESOL/ESL, librarians, reading , coaches, mentions, music, art, PE, etc.” Taking a closer look at the average class sizes by the type of school:

• Elementary schools. Arlington ranks third with 18.6 students per classroom teacher, ranking behind the City of Manassas (16.0) and Prince George’s County (17.5).  Fairfax County ranks 7th (21.2 students per classroom teachers) with Loudoun County 9th (22.4 students/teacher).

• Middle/Intermediate schools. APS ranked 1st (19.7 students per teacher) and ranged to 9th, Prince William County (31.0 students per teacher).

• Secondary/High schools. APS again ranked 1st (with 17.6 students per teacher) and ranged to Montgomery County at 8th (with 28.5 students per teacher) and Prince William County 9th (with 28.9 students per teacher).

It is a shame the education special interests did not have as much sympathy for taxpayers when the Arlington County Board was authorizing significant tax increases that enabled the School Board to pay for lower class sizes during the early years of the decade so it’s hard to be sympathetic for those who oppose increasing class sizes now. Moreover, an "action  paper" from the Center for Education Reform cautions:

"Parents and educators alike should be aware that this latest craze to try to reform education by tinkering with class size is a small, relatively inconsequential policy move over the length of a child's schooling."