A Report Card on Class Size Reduction Effort

California’s much-ballyhooed program to reduce the size of elementary school classes followed a classic formula: the government offered big money to encourage localities--in this case school districts--to enact a reform.

Now a final accounting shows just how well the financial incentive worked, enabling nearly 1 million schoolchildren to learn in classes with 20 or fewer pupils.

At the same time, there were some school districts that could not resist the state’s offer--applying for millions in funds--but failed to fully follow through. Though they asked for the maximum money, their reach exceeded their grasp--they produced only a fraction of the smaller classes they promised.

The financial incentive was $650 per pupil. After it was dangled in front of them, California school districts last fall declared that they would operate more than 52,000 classrooms--from kindergarten through grade three--with no more than 20 pupils.

In the final accounting to be released today, the Department of Education reports that, statewide, districts fell only 600 classrooms short of achieving that goal. That they came so close was remarkable, given that the program was unveiled last summer just weeks before the start of school. To quickly find enough space for new classrooms, many schools had to use auditoriums or libraries.

Overall, 925,000 students wound up in the smaller classes during the just-completed school year. Another 29,000 were in smaller classes for part of the day, earning their districts $325 for each pupil.

All told, about half of California students in those early grades were able to benefit from having fewer other pupils competing for the teacher’s attention.

It is far too early to measure the impact through test results. But school officials say pupils are reading better, are further along in math and are learning in greater depth concepts such as how the weather changes with the seasons.

“The enthusiasm and support for smaller classes are phenomenal,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, whose office compiled the statistics.

Yet, the figures for Los Angeles County also show how some districts fell far short of the targets they set when they applied for money from the program in November. The problem was, to reduce class sizes from 30 to 20 pupils, districts had to create one new class for every two they had. And they had to have those classrooms equipped and staffed by mid-February.

Overall, 263,000 students in Los Angeles County participated, which brought in $169 million from the state--94% of the funds their districts applied for.

But the Inglewood Unified School District--which has suffered from severe financial problems, embezzlement scandals and political turmoil that led to the firing and rehiring of its superintendent-- qualified for only 37% of the money it sought. The Burbank Unified School District collected only $805,000 of the $2.1 million it asked for. The Alhambra Unified School District fell short by a similar percentage, losing out on $1.6 million. Several other districts--including Glendale, San Gabriel, Hawthorne and Lawndale--collected only about half of what they anticipated.

By contrast, the giant Los Angeles Unified School District, which has some of the most daunting space problems of any in the state, managed to collect $76 million, 96% of the money it applied for. And the Newhall School District received nearly 40% more money than it requested by managing to reduce the size of kindergarten classes, a grade officials there initially did not expect to include.

Inglewood Assistant Supt. Rhuenette Montel acknowledged that the political disruption surrounding McKinley M. Nash, the district’s chief executive, was distracting. But she said that did not hurt the district’s ability to carry out class-size reduction.

Instead, she said, the district simply applied for the maximum amount of money, enough to carry out the program in grades one through three at all schools. The application, however, did not take into consideration the lack of room for additional classrooms.

Most of the district’s 13 elementary schools were too cramped to accommodate new classes. One school even considered leasing an empty storefront, an idea later abandoned out of security concerns.

Next year, one tiny school, Hudnall, plans to stagger its instructional hours so that some students come early and others stay late--an arrangement that will qualify the district for partial funding.

Burbank similarly applied for the maximum amount last fall. Then, in November, the district decided to implement the program only in the first grade so it could remodel classrooms and hire credentialed teachers before expanding to other grades this fall. “We took a very guarded and I think longer term view of it,” said Assistant Supt. Gregory Bowman.

In Glendale, officials realized that the financial incentive offered by the state would not cover the costs of the program. They also found it difficult to hire enough qualified teachers and, as in many districts, could not find enough classrooms. As in Los Angeles and elsewhere, some schools qualified for the state money only by doubling up, putting two teachers and 40 students in one room.

Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed expanding the class-size reduction program for the coming school year, to include all classes through third grade. To pay for the expansion, Wilson wants to add about $500 million to the $1 billion that was set aside last year.

Alhambra’s superintendent, Richard A. Keilhacker, said his district will still find that difficult. This past year, stymied by a lack of classrooms, it was able to reduce class size only in first grade--though it had sought funds for second grade, as well.

“We really wanted to, to the point of applying, but we just couldn’t carry it out,” he said.

The full statewide data is available online at https://www.cde.ca.gov under “class size reduction.”

Times education writer Elaine Woo contributed to this story.

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Class-Size Funding

A final accounting of the state’s $1-billion class-size reduction program shows that most school districts met their goals for trimming classes in lower grades to 20 pupils. But some districts, marked in red, applied for millions in funding only to fall far short of reduction goals. Here are L.A. County figures through June:

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Funds Sought Funds % District Last November Received Difference Diff. ABC $2,125,500 $2,175,550 $50,050 2.4 Acton-Agua Dulce $139,750 $146,900 $7,150 5.1 Alhambra $2,516,150 $950,950 $1,565,200 62.2 Arcadia $702,325 $759,200 $56,875 8.1 Azusa $958,100 $930,800 $27,300 2.8 Baldwin Park $1,093,950 $981,500 $112,450 10.3 Bassett $748,150 $708,500 $39,650 5.3 Bellflower $2,135,250 $2,154,100 $18,850 0.9 Beverly Hills $577,200 $603,850 $26,650 4.6 Bonita $1,355,900 $1,395,550 $39,650 2.9 Burbank $2,136,550 $804,700 $1,331,850 62.3 Castaic $166,400 $170,950 $4,550 2.7 Charter Oak $970,450 $998,400 $27,950 2.9 Claremont $801,450 $828,100 $26,650 3.3 Compton $1,923,350 $1,942,850 $19,500 1.0 Covina Valley $1,907,750 $1,728,350 $179,400 9.4 Culver $679,900 $706,225 $26,325 3.9 Downey $958,750 $1,220,050 $261,300 27.3 Duarte $278,200 $274,300 $3,900 1.4 East Whittier $629,200 $692,250 $63,050 10.0 Eastside $362,700 $382,850 $20,150 5.6 El Monte $1,881,100 $1,818,700 $62,400 3.3 El Rancho $1,838,850 $1,916,850 $78,000 4.2 El Segundo $333,450 $339,300 $5,850 1.8 Garvey $643,500 $602,550 $40,950 6.4 Glendale $4,337,775 $2,455,700 $1,882,075 43.4 Glendora $735,150 $754,000 $18,850 2.6 Gorman $18,850 $24,050 $5,200 27.6 Hacnda./L. Pnte. $1,215,500 $1,259,050 $43,550 3.6 Hawthorne $1,333,150 $678,600 $654,550 49.1 Hermosa Beach $210,600 $224,250 $13,650 6.5 Hughes Eliz. Lks. $109,850 $114,400 $4,550 4.1 Inglewood $4,024,150 $1,493,050 $2,531,100 62.9 Keppel $442,000 $448,500 $6,500 1.5 La Canada $541,450 $618,150 $76,700 14.2 Lancaster $2,544,100 $2,381,600 $162,500 6.4 Las Virgenes $1,600,950 $1,709,500 $108,550 6.8 Lawndale $850,200 $466,050 $384,150 45.2 Lennox $598,000 $563,550 $34,450 5.8 Little Lake $600,600 $647,400 $46,800 7.8 Long Beach $10,230,025 $10,430,550 $200,525 2.0 Los Angeles $79,229,150 $76,064,950 $3,164,200 4.0 Los Nietos $316,225 $338,650 $22,425 7.1 Lowell Joint $429,000 $559,975 $130,975 30.5 Lynwood $1,065,350 $1,058,200 $7,150 0.7 Manhattan Beach $550,550 $633,750 $83,200 15.1 Monrovia $1,129,700 $1,147,250 $17,550 1.6 Montebello $3,225,300 $2,314,000 $911,300 28.3 Mountain View $845,000 $828,100 $16,900 2.0 Newhall $982,150 $1,351,350 $369,200 37.6 Norwalk/L. Mir. $1,329,900 $1,307,150 $22,750 1.7 Palmdale $4,347,850 $4,312,750 $35,100 0.8 Palos Verdes Pen. $858,000 $1,105,975 $247,975 28.9 Paramount $2,830,100 $2,788,500 $41,600 1.5 Pasadena $2,564,250 $2,618,200 $53,950 2.1 Pomona $6,118,450 $6,026,800 $91,650 1.5 Redondo Beach $516,100 $587,275 $71,175 13.8 Rosemead $734,500 $702,000 $32,500 4.4 Rowland $1,821,300 $1,857,050 $35,750 2.0 San Gabriel $894,400 $412,100 $482,300 53.9 San Marino $335,400 $372,450 $37,050 11.0 S. Monica Malibu $1,247,350 $1,303,575 $56,225 4.5 Saugus $1,407,900 $1,503,450 $95,550 6.8 South Pasadena $451,100 $501,800 $50,700 11.2 South Whittier $668,850 $677,300 $8,450 1.3 Sulphur Springs $1,178,450 $1,176,825 $1,625 0.1 Temple City $558,350 $592,150 $33,800 6.1 Torrance $2,217,800 $2,211,300 $6,500 0.3 Valle Lindo $89,050 $74,750 $14,300 16.1 Walnut Valley $1,324,050 $1,508,650 $184,600 13.9 West Covina $519,350 $493,350 $26,000 5.0 Westside $1,228,500 $1,275,300 $46,800 3.8 Whittier $562,900 $572,650 $9,750 1.7 Wilsona $455,650 $413,400 $42,250 9.3

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Charter Schools Funds Sought Funds % District Last November Received Difference Diff. Accelerated $5,200 $9,100 $3,900 75.0 Fenton Ave. $330,200 $359,450 $29,250 8.9 Vaughn Street $341,250 $347,100 $5,850 1.7

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