Push Is On for Smaller 9th-Grade Classes

Two years after California began an unprecedented effort to cut class size in the earliest grades of elementary schools, Gov. Pete Wilson and leading state lawmakers intend to give similar help to students entering high school.

Under a tentative agreement reached this week, the state would pay $89 million next year to ensure that ninth-grade English and math classes have no more than 20 students each. The student-teacher ratio in public high schools now is about 30 to 1.

This latest class-size reduction is no sure thing. Final approval still hinges on votes in the state Legislature, which could come as early as Monday, and the governor’s signature.

But why the sudden attention on ninth grade?

For one, lawmakers and education officials alike were disappointed by the reading scores posted by high school students on last spring’s statewide achievement tests. California ninth-graders scored at the 34th percentile on the reading portion of the Stanford 9 exams--well below the 50th percentile that marks the national average. Tenth- and 11th-graders fared no better.

“We got the test results and California students in kindergarten through eighth grade are very competitive,” said state Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon). “Almost immediately, however, when they get into high school, they crash and burn. This is a beginning to a recognition of the reality of what’s happening on our high school campuses.”

State Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), a leading advocate of the ninth-grade measure, predicted that smaller classes “will significantly increase our test scores for high school students.”

Another reason cited Thursday was the transitional role of ninth grade as students move from middle school to a much more challenging high school curriculum--writing lengthy essays in English and social studies classes and working with algebraic equations in math and science. As Doug Stone, spokesman for the state Department of Education, put it, “It’s one of those gateway years in school.”

Last year, Linda Carpenter had at least 38 students in each of her 11th- and 12th-grade English classes at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. She thinks the state was right in targeting the ninth-graders for help.

“I would definitely pick the freshmen,” Carpenter said. “Because that is the year that sets the standards. Ninth grade is a year that students can fall through the cracks.”

Aside from the educational reasons, there was a practical one. State officials and lawmakers note that cutting class size in just the key subjects in the ninth grade is cheaper and simpler than tackling another whole elementary grade.

And, in fact, the state has been modestly trying to reduce the size of high school classes since 1990.

It was not until 1996 that the state began what has become the massive and wildly popular program to cap class sizes, at 20 students, from kindergarten through third grade. In the last school year, that initiative cost about $1.2 billion. The expense stems from the fact that one new class has to be created, and a new teacher hired, for each two classes cut down from 30 students.

The idea is to enable teachers to give students as much one-on-one help as possible during the years when they are learning to read, write, add and subtract.

So why not extend that program to fourth grade? A spokesman for state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), one of Sacramento’s leading budget negotiators, said that option was ruled out for at least three reasons:

Many elementary schools are running out of space after having created so many new classrooms; California’s teacher shortage is especially acute in elementary schools because of all the hiring done in the last two years in kindergarten through third grades; and then there’s the higher price tag for reducing the size of elementary classes, which runs the entire school day, while high school math and English take up only part of the day.

For all the apparent momentum behind the ninth-grade plan, one of Wilson’s budget negotiators warned it is not yet a done deal. Chris Kahn said the Republican governor supports the plan but money still needs to be found to make it happen.

“He’s going to try to figure out a way to make it fit in this budget,” Kahn said. “We will have to do some juggling.”

Most of the other education-related measures agreed to on Wednesday by Wilson and the top legislators followed proposals that emerged in May when the governor retooled his proposed annual budget, including $250 million for new textbooks and instructional materials and $230 million for libraries and laboratories.

The accord also calls for spending $195 million to guarantee that students spend 180 days in school each year, according to Wilson officials, another idea that has been widely circulated for several months. The average school year is now about 175 days.

In addition, if the plan passes, the state’s 8,000 public schools will get at least $10,000 each to spend any way they wish.

Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this report.