Reduced Student Load Creates Class Envy Among Some Teachers

Teachers of California’s youngest public school children revel in their 20-student classes. But next door and across the hall, their colleagues are less content.

Upper elementary grade teachers, with as many as 35 students, have far less individual interaction with them. And they must fill out a third more report cards, meet more parents, grade more papers.

“From Eureka to the Mexican border, every single district is feeling this,” said Gail Rothman, president of the Irvine Teachers Assn.

The inequity is so obvious to the Saddleback Valley Educators Assn. that the teachers union in south Orange County wants to negotiate a $500 stipend per student for every teacher whose class enrollment surpasses 33.

“There’s definitely a little bit of envy there,” said Joyce A. Rubel, a fourth-grade teacher at Foothill Ranch Elementary School. “Sometimes I think ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to have just 20?’ ”

Rubel, whose school is in the Saddleback district, said she enjoys the adult banter she has with her fourth-graders, but briefly considered switching to a lower grade so she could take part in the class-size reduction program.

State education officials said they have sent Gov. Gray Davis a $1.1-billion proposal to expand the state’s most popular education reform to the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.

But many districts couldn’t participate even if money was available; their schools lack the extra space to create more classrooms. Enrollment caps on other grades also would exacerbate the shortage of qualified teachers in California.

Barring any long-term solution, principals and other school administrators are trying to placate the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade teachers. They are hiring more instructional aides for those grades, allowing teachers additional preparation periods, even enlisting substitute teachers to help out when the paperwork gets overwhelming.

“I think that’s at the forefront of everyone’s mind: How are we going to accommodate the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade teachers?” said Keric Ashley, the coordinator of the class-size reduction program at the state Department of Education.

At the Fremont School in Santa Ana, Lisa Haydt admitted that she cannot give her 32 fifth-graders as much personal focus as she’d like. Students who are behind stay in at lunch or remain after school to get extra help.

“There is no other time during the day,” Haydt said. It is unfair to let four or five of her slower learners hold back the progress of an entire class, she said.

“I definitely feel that I’d be able to give my students more individualized attention” with 20 students in the class, Haydt said.

Class-size reduction has put teachers of those older children in an uncomfortable spot. They strongly support the smaller classes in primary grades, but many can’t help feeling excluded from its benefits.

“It isn’t that they don’t want class-size reduction for the early grades,” said Tommye W. Hutto, a spokeswoman for the California Teachers Assn. “What they want is for some assistance for them as well.”

The Haves and Have-Nots

School administrators are not unaware of the concerns.

“It is certainly unequal,” said Kathy Dick, director of elementary education at Saddleback Valley Unified.

“I get grumblings about it once in a while,” said Supt. James A. Fleming of the Capistrano Unified School District. “And I tell (the upper elementary teachers), ‘You will be getting better-prepared students.’ That, in some ways, will make their job easier. It is the one silver lining in all this.”

Rubel, at Foothill Ranch, agrees that her fourth-graders are more advanced in handwriting, language and writing than their predecessors.

“I don’t know if it just happens to be the group of kids this year or as a result of class-size reduction, but they are definitely coming in with more skills,” she said. “The average student this year is 40% stronger than the average in the past few years. We don’t have to go back and give that remedial support as much.”

During last year’s teacher contract talks with Rubel’s district, Saddleback Valley Unified, the union bargaining committee suggested the $500 stipend as a way of recognizing their workload.

It wasn’t included in the one-year contract that was ratified in October, but Janet Henry, president of the Saddleback Valley Educators Assn., said the issue has returned to the negotiating table this year.

Other union leaders rejected the notion of a cash incentive, calling it divisive.

“I think that pits one teacher against another,” said Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents an estimated 39,000 teachers. “I’d rather have all teachers teaching smaller classes.”

Class sizes range from 27 to 35 students in the upper elementary grades, Higuchi said.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “Everybody’s under pressure to meet standards, to read better and everybody realizes that [smaller classes] are so important.

Last month, the Irvine teachers union sent a letter to administrators at 22 elementary schools to find ways to “help out” upper elementary instructors. On some campuses, instructional aides have been redeployed from primary to upper elementary grades. Principals are trying to carve out some extra time for teachers to grade papers or fill out report cards.

Evening the Playing Field

At Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach, teachers of the youngest grades volunteer to cover outside morning duty for fourth- and fifth-grade teachers during parent-teacher conference week, Principal Nancy Blade said. That allows upper elementary teachers more time to prepare for the parent meetings.

“I think the staff here really works together to foster a sense of equity,” Blade said.

Some worry not only about the plight of teachers in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. After four years in smaller classes, entering fourth-graders may feel discombobulated being in a class of 35 kids instead of 20.

“It’ll be fine for those who are independent workers,” said Ashley, the class-size reduction program coordinator. “It’ll hurt the ones who need the help the most. It’s very easy for students to get overlooked in the crowd.”

He estimates that it would cost $375 million to reduce class sizes in fourth grades statewide; $360 million in fifth grades and $355 million in sixth grades. Portable buildings, to create the additional classes, would cost $1.3 billion, Ashley said.

An estimated 28,000 new teachers have been hired to staff the smaller classes, and 5,000 more are needed before the current school year ends, Ashley said. An expansion of the class-size reduction program would further sap the teacher supply.

“We’ve gotten over the big hump,” he said. “Eighty-two percent of the kids [across California] are now participating, and now we’re on the downside [of hiring more teachers]. Unless they want to add another grade.”

Despite those obstacles, state officials announced in August that class sizes would be capped at 20 in ninth-grade English and math classes. Fewer resources are needed for the limited high school effort. Still, leapfrogging the upper-elementary grades didn’t go unnoticed.

“It was kind of like a slap in the face,” said Henry, the Irvine union official.