Wilson to Propose Cutting Class Size in 1st, 2nd Grades

Gov. Pete Wilson will propose directing nearly half a billion dollars in higher-than-expected tax revenues to an ambitious effort to improve beginning reading and math instruction by cutting public school class sizes from 30 pupils to 20 in the first and second grades, senior administration officials said Saturday.

In addition, the governor, who is in the politically enviable position of doling out the fruits of the state’s robust economy, plans to give school districts tens of millions of dollars to restock depleted library shelves and buy reading and other textbooks, said the aides, who asked not to be named.

They said the educational initiatives revealed Saturday are just the first of several that Wilson will discuss this week when his administration announces that the state’s income for this year is vastly exceeding projections. Earlier this year, the legislative analyst’s office had pegged the surplus at more than a billion dollars, but officials said the actual figure will be far higher.

Wilson’s initiative to reduce class size--one of several new education policies he is expected to unveil Monday in Orange County--is certain to be well received by educators and parents. But questions remain about its academic benefits and how it would be implemented in crowded school districts with no vacant rooms.

Under the California Constitution, Wilson is required to use a certain percentage of the state’s budget on public schools and community colleges. The governor’s aides say he has decided to become actively involved in making sure local school districts spend the money furthering his agenda, which includes improving reading skills.

Earlier this month, the Wilson administration and state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin reached an agreement on a $127-million initiative emphasizing the importance of phonics and letters in teaching beginning reading. Wilson aides said Saturday that the state’s rosier than expected revenue picture will boost the amount the state will spend on that initiative to $200 million.

Another $83 million in one-time money will be available for school districts to buy library books or other textbooks.

But the biggest chunk of spending revealed Saturday is the $460 million to reduce class size in first and second grades, the years that experts say determine whether students learn to read well and enjoy school. The program could be expanded next year to include the third grade if additional funds are available, Wilson’s aides said.

There is general agreement that reducing class sizes to 20 children will help students get more individualized instruction and lighten the load on teachers, who will be able to work more intensively with students in smaller groups. This is considered essential in classes that use letters and their sounds as a foundation for reading.

Often cited as evidence of the state’s neglect of education and offered by some people as an explanation for poor reading and math scores, California’s average class size has grown in the past five years to become the largest in the nation.

Wilson’s proposal joins several sweeping plans offered by Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature, adding to the growing consensus that a large chunk of new education spending ought to be aimed at solving a single, long-standing problem rather than be given to school districts to use in any manner they wish.

“This is a common sense idea that is really taking hold,” Eastin said. “In the past, what we have heard from the Republicans is that if only we had the money, we’d do it in a minute. And now there is the money, and there is a state Constitution that says it has to be spent on schools.”

Eastin last week sent Wilson a letter asking him to reduce class sizes from kindergarten to third grade over the next several years. She estimated that it would cost $2 billion to hire enough teachers and another $2 billion to build enough classrooms to accommodate them.

To encourage school districts to reduce class size, Wilson is proposing a financial incentive--a grant of $500 for each pupil assigned to a classroom of 20 students or less.

But the evidence is mixed as to how much of an impact cutting class sizes to 20, as Wilson is proposing, will have on academic achievement.

Most research has suggested that class size makes little difference in improving student performance until it gets to 15 children or fewer.

Also unclear is whether school districts will be able to hire the 13,500 teachers that might be needed to achieve Wilson’s goal. Nearly 15,000 California classrooms are now staffed by teachers with emergency credentials who have not taken required classes.

Further, it is also unknown to what extent crowded and fast-growing school districts, such as those in Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Ana, Capistrano and elsewhere, would be able to take advantage of the proposal. Many schools, including most of those in Los Angeles, will not be able to simply hire more teachers and redistribute students, because they do not have vacant classrooms.

“It’s a wonderful thought, a wonderful thought, but it really isn’t something that should be rushed into that quickly without thinking of all the ramifications that it has for schools in large cities like ours,” said Lloyd Houske, principal of Cahuenga School, the most over-enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Already, Houske said, 1,200 students from the neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles board buses to travel to 25 other schools because there is no room at Cahuenga. Reducing class size in grades one through three would require an additional 200 students to board buses for long rides.

The governor, in an effort to encourage these kinds of schools to emphasize individualized instruction, would provide additional limited funding--$250 per student--for alternatives short of creating new classrooms.

Schools could install dividers, hire reading or math specialists to take over for part of the day, reorganize the school day to create smaller study groups or take other measures.

Ron Prescott, the Los Angeles district’s chief lobbyist, said Saturday, “It’s hard to be critical” of Wilson’s proposal. “Obviously, the only concern we would have is the ability to meet the space requirements, at least in some portions of the district.”

James A. Fleming, superintendent of the fast-growing Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, also backs class-size reduction efforts if they come with flexibility. He said last week that he would consider dividing large classrooms into two or three parts or asking the state for permission to hire aides. “These are all challenges and problems that can be overcome, if the ultimate realization of a . . . class size of one to 20 or something in that range is possible,” he said.

State Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) was the first to propose investing in reducing class sizes. His bill, which is awaiting action by the Senate Appropriations Committee, would allocate $725 million over the next three years to reduce class sizes to 20 students in grades one through three in districts choosing to participate.

A similar bill has been introduced by Assemblywoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado).

An analysis of the Greene bill said districts would have to spend an additional $10,000 to $15,000 annually per classroom out of other funds to cover the costs of the plan.

Wilson aides acknowledged that districts would have to kick in additional money under the governor’s plan as well. But they said districts would be well positioned to do that because $1 billion in new operating funds and $300 million in one-time funds previously had been built into the governor’s budget plans.

Last week, Assembly Republicans put forth their own plan for reducing class size. Assemblymen Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), Steve Baldwin (R-El Cajon) and Bernie Richter (R-Chico), with the support of their party’s caucus, are proposing to spend $900 million to reduce class sizes in four grades right away. School districts could choose which four grades to target.

Baldwin said the Republicans will announce Tuesday a plan to help school districts find space for the new classrooms. Another bill, sponsored by state Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), would provide $100 million for facilities this year.

Earlier this year, the legislative analyst’s office recommended distributing half of any new revenues for schools to reduce class size, with the rest to go for general support of programs.

In making that recommendation, the analyst’s office cited a 10-year, two-phase experiment that concluded that smaller class sizes can have a profound impact.

The first phase of that experiment--known as Project Star, for Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio--concluded that pupils who attended classes from kindergarten to third grade with an average of only 15 students did substantially better in reading and math than peers at the same school, even if the larger class also had the services of an aide.

The gains were even more substantial for poorer students, at least initially. And the advantage enjoyed by students who had been in the smaller classes was still noticeable when they started junior high school, four years after they had returned to regular size classrooms.

One analysis of the results, by Harvard University statistics professor Frederick Mosteller, said a student who would otherwise rank at the 50th percentile in math and reading would score at the 60th percentile given the opportunity to attend one of the smaller classes.

Eric A. Hanushek, an economist and public policy professor at the University of Rochester, cautioned against drawing overly broad conclusions from the Tennessee experiment. He said the greatest gain from the smaller classes was achieved by students in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the gains were maintained but did not increase.

“My interpretation is that in some subjects, with some teachers and some students, smaller class sizes can be beneficial,” he said. “For others, it doesn’t have an effect at all.”

Judy Fox, a first-grade teacher in Celina, Tenn., a struggling textile mill town 100 miles north of Nashville, said she had only 12 students during the first year of the experiment and the smaller class size made a huge difference. Instead of struggling to get through the curriculum by the end of May, she was wrapped up in March. “I was surprised at how well they did, how easy the work was, how much they enjoyed it,” Fox said. “We also had time for music, art social studies, science . . . and even field trips. It was just wonderful.”

Although Wilson will be highlighting how his $61-billion budget will help California schools, other state services could be asked to shoulder deep cuts.

Wilson said last month that he would have to find at least $1.6 billion in non-education budget cuts if Congress and President Clinton cannot agree on a welfare plan that would reduce the state’s outlay.

Another $1.5 billion included in the budget proposal Wilson made in January also is shaky. It is contingent on whether the federal government or the state Legislature does such things as cut welfare payments for another year or cancel the planned resumption of the state’s renter’s tax credit after a five-year hiatus.

“There are still going to have to be made painful decisions and painful cuts in the budget,” a Wilson aide said, “but we’re starting to have steady economic growth, and education will not suffer.”