Irvine Teachers Ask Smaller Classes

About 60 English teachers in the Irvine Unified School District will petition the school board tonight to lower English-class sizes so that “better one-on-one assistance can be given the students,” a spokeswoman for the teachers said.

Judy Teverbaugh, an English teacher at Irvine High School, said Monday that the English teachers have been meeting informally about their problem of trying to grade essays and compositions when they have unusually large classes.

“It takes many teachers 20 to 30 hours a week, in addition to their regular 40-hour workweek, to grade essays if all their English students do one essay a week,” Teverbaugh said.

She pointed out that it takes 10 minutes, “at a minimum,” to grade each student’s essay, and some English teachers have up to 175 students.

“State Supt. (of Public Instruction) Bill Honig is encouraging giving more writing assignments, including an essay a week,” she said. “We teachers support that, but we need smaller class sizes.”

Teverbaugh said the English teachers will be asking the Irvine school board to do what it can to reduce class sizes and to press the Legislature for state relief.

Dean Waldfogel, the Irvine district’s assistant superintendent for instruction and curriculum, said Monday: “I’m aware of the (English teachers’) problem and very sympathetic. At times, I even get angry, because I think California can do better.”

Waldfogel said that because of low state funding for schools, only one other state has more students per teacher in public schools than California. “We’re going to try to do something about the problem, but I don’t have any answers off the top of my head,” Waldfogel said. “We’re going to have to be creative.”

Waldfogel said the Irvine school district averages 29 to 31 students per English class. “But it is true that some teachers have 35 students, and some may even have more than that,” he added. “That’s a heavy load for someone trying to teach a creative class.”