Class Cuts May Not Aid Kindergartners

Despite California’s ambitious class-size reduction initiative, thousands of local kindergartners remain in crowded classrooms as the school year begins and districts scramble to overcome a shortage of space and qualified teachers.

Administrators in districts across Los Angeles County say their class-size reduction efforts are boiling down to a simple equation: With limited resources, they must choose one grade over another.

The class reductions are voluntary, but are tied to state funding, so schools have a strong incentive to implement the program as broadly as possible. State officials have concentrated on fostering the reductions in kindergarten through grade three in an effort to bolster fundamental reading and math skills.

The state provided $1 billion last year for the reform and boosted that to $1.5 billion this year, but the funds still will not cover the cost of building new schools in urban school systems--such as the giant Los Angeles Unified School District--that lack adequate space to cut class size.

Even with adequate funding, it will take three more years to bring reduced-size classes to all of the 248,673 students in kindergarten through third grade at Los Angeles Unified’s more than 460 elementary schools. Although the district achieved the ratio of 20 students to 1 teacher in virtually all first- and second-grade classes last year, it is now prepared to meet that same goal in just 20% of third-grade classes this school year, which officially started last week.

For most Los Angeles Unified kindergartens, the picture is even bleaker, with little prospect of reaching the 20-to-1 ratio before July 1998, officials said.

Los Angeles Unified and other local school districts are continuing to offer smaller classes in first and second grades, a process initiated last school year shortly after Gov. Pete Wilson announced that the state would fund the expensive reform.

The next highest priority for many is reducing third-grade classes. The districts say the decision, although difficult, makes sense for several reasons: They want to provide continuity for the new third-graders who enjoyed the fruits of smaller classes in the second grade last year. In addition, they say, third-graders spend more time in school each day than kindergartners, who attend class for half a day.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is among those focusing their energies on creating third-grade classes with one teacher for every 20 students.

“It’s not a matter of kindergarten not being important, it’s a matter of having to choose one or the other,” said Art Cohen, assistant superintendent for fiscal and business services in the Santa Monica-Malibu district.

Betsy Richman, spokeswoman for the 23,000-student Pasadena Unified School District, put it even more bluntly: “Kindergarten [class reduction] is not planned this year,” she said.

In the Los Angeles school district, administrators are using complicated formulas to provide some stopgap class-size reductions. Many third-graders, for example, will be grouped with 60 students in two rooms, with three teachers.

Another formula will apply in kindergarten, where teachers will double up for a portion of each day.

Many teachers of both grades call the plans poor substitutes for true class-size reduction, saying that rooms will still be crowded and students will not get the individual attention envisioned under the reform. Kindergarten teachers also say they will spend preparation time working with other classes.

“If you are going to do 20-to-1, then do 20-to-1. It’s not fair to the children,” said Elyse Rose, a kindergarten teacher at Woodlake Elementary in Woodland Hills. She teams up with another teacher 100 minutes a day, and the combined classes have 32 students, the same number Rose had last year in her own class.

“Don’t be under the impression that you are getting the same classroom environment that the 20-to-1 teacher can provide,” Rose said. “You hope you are doing quality teaching, but it is hindered by all these external factors.”

Los Angeles school officials say they recognize the drawbacks of the modified reduction plans but that there are no alternatives.

“It’s not a perfect fit,” said Gordon Wohlers, assistant superintendent for policy, research and development. “We take that as a challenge to fully implement class-size reduction and make it work everywhere as quickly as we can. We’re not going to reap all of the benefits out of the gate.”

Even as the school district attempts to cut class sizes, it is confronting another problem: soaring enrollment. An additional 50,000 students are anticipated by the end of the 2001 school year.

The growing number of students and the push to shrink class sizes have highlighted the shortage of available classrooms; many schools have been forced to hold classes in libraries, auditoriums, teachers’ lounges and other rooms.

To meet the class-size reduction goals so far, the district has purchased more than 1,000 portable classrooms and hired more than 2,000 teachers.

But the district does have one advantage: it has money at the ready to build new schools. Voters last April approved a $2.4-billion school repair bond, $900 million of which is set aside for new school construction.

* Times staff writer Peter Y. Hong and correspondents Tracy Johnson, Kevin O’Leary, John Cox and Sue McAllister contributed to this story.