Tomorrow there are NYC Council hearings on teacher retention and attrition. Here is what I will say. This testimony is also available as a pdf here.
Testimony
to the NYC Council Education Committee on the impact of class size reduction on
teacher recruitment and retention
January
24, 2017
Dear Chair Dromm and
members of the NYC Council Education committee:
Thank you for
holding these hearings today.
Most experts say the
challenge of creating an effective, experienced teaching force especially in
high-needs urban areas such as New York City derives more from high levels of
teacher attrition than to the difficulty of recruitment. As Richard Ingersoll of the University of
Pennsylvania has written, “school staffing problems are rooted in the way
schools are organized and the way the teaching occupation is treated … lasting
improvements in the quality and quantity of the teaching workforce will require
improvements in the quality of the teaching job."[1]
One of the most
important determinants of the quality of the teaching profession is whether
teachers feel as though they have a chance to be successful, and this in turn
largely depends on their class sizes. Studies
have linked small class sizes with a variety of cognitive and non-cognitive
benefits for students and teachers, both short and long-term. Research shows that class size is an
important factor in teachers’ decisions to leave or stay in their jobs. Richard Ingersoll has noted that 54 percent
of teachers who leave their school report that large class sizes contributed to
their decision. [2]
According to a 2004 NYC
Council survey of public school teachers, nearly a
third (30%) of teachers with 1-5 years of experience said it was unlikely that
they would be teaching in a NYC school in the next three years. For those
teachers who were considering leaving, the top three changes in their work
conditions that they said would most likely to persuade them to stay included
higher pay, smaller classes, and better student discipline. [3]
Of course, teacher pay has been increased substantially since 2007;
yet at the same time, class sizes have also increased sharply. As for student discipline, many studies
demonstrate that disruptive behavior also diminishes significantly when class
sizes are smaller, because students are more engaged, can gain more positive
feedback from their teachers and develop a more positive attitude towards their
schools.
A review of 11
separate class size studies revealed the positive impact of smaller classes on
students' behavior, resulting in decreases in disciplinary problems and increases
in pro-social behavior, including positive interactions with teachers and other
students.[4]
In a report released
by the Educational Priorities Panel about the impact of the first year of the
state’s early grade class size program in 2000, both teachers and
administrators described a huge improvement in student learning, but also in their
behavior. [5]
One principal of a
Harlem elementary school spoke about how suspensions at her school had fallen
60 percent from the previous year, which she attributed to smaller
classes. Another principal observed:
“Management is easier…There are fewer discipline problems because [student]
needs are being met in the classroom.
They’re not acting out as much; there’s been a turnaround in their
behavior. For the first time, we have
time to invest in the whole child, and relate to the child on all levels.”
As a Brooklyn
teacher explained, “If you have a child with a disciplinary problem, you can
get on top of it faster …you can re-channel children’s attention towards a
different avenue and get them to refocus their energies on the
work, instead of acting out." As another teacher put it, students “look at
each other more as family, and they connect to each other.”
Of course, as disciplinary problems are reduced, the time
for learning is increased, which leads to further academic advances --
triggering a positive feedback. Teachers almost uniformly reported spending
more time on teaching, and less on classroom management as class sizes are
decreased.
In the EPP report, many
NYC principals independently predicted that the improvement in teacher morale
resulting from class size reduction would lead to less staff turnover at their
schools. One teacher
went as far as to say that she would not remain teaching in the New York City
public school system if the program was discontinued: "Now that I've seen
the difference a small class makes, I don't want to go back to being a
policeman. It would be impossible for me to go back to the old way. If the
program disappeared, I'd go elsewhere -- I wouldn't keep teaching in a city public
school, I'd teach where classes are smaller. Whatever money I was offered, it's
just not worth it."
One of the arguments frequently made by opponents of class
size reduction is that it could lead to an influx of unqualified, inexperienced
teachers, particularly in schools that were already hard-to-staff. None of the principals
mentioned this as a problem. Instead, one interviewed for this report said that
it was much easier to fill the new openings she had, even among applicants who
had already taken other jobs, because she could promise them smaller classes.
Indeed, for the first time, she said, she could recruit more qualified
candidates to teach in her school, including many with master’s degrees and greater
experience.
Other studies have
confirmed a significant relationship between class size, teacher morale and
teacher retention. One study done in
California concluded that large classes significantly increased teacher attrition
rates.[6] Another
study analyzed data from New York districts outside NYC, and concluded that
decreasing class size by three students per class significantly lowered teacher
attrition. [7]
In a 2014 UFT survey, 99 percent of NYC teachers said reducing class size would be the most
effective reform to improve student outcomes – far outstripping any other policy,
including implementing socio-emotional learning, expanding universal preKindergarten,
community schools, or college-ready standards.[8] Thus reducing class size would likely
significantly improve the retention of qualified, experienced teachers, since
they would no longer leave the profession or depart to teach in suburban or private
schools to experience success.
In the EPP report,
one principal described the impact of smaller classes on her staff this way:
With my teachers,
I was always concerned about burnout. I was a teacher myself and knew how
difficult it was having 25 to 30 students ... In this school the staff turnover
used to be tremendous; it was in part because they had so many kids, they were
doomed to failure and no one wants to fail. Now, my teachers are happy. They
are enjoying the art of teaching again. Sometimes, I felt like we were all on
an assembly line. Now we can feel satisfaction, because we have results and can
accomplish our goals.
For
more studies showing the benefits of class size reduction in improving learning,
socio-emotional development, attendance, discipline, school climate, parent
engagement and narrowing the achievement gap, see www.classsizematters.org/research
[1] Ingersoll,
Richard, (2003) Is There Really a Teacher Shortage? Consortium for Policy Research in Education, http://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_researchreports/37
[2] See Figure 15 at: Ingersoll, Richard M., (2015) “Why
Schools Have Difficulty Staffing Their Classrooms with Qualified Teachers.” Consortium for Policy Research in Education,
http://blueribbon.sd.gov/docs/Ingersoll%20Presentation819.pdf
[3] NYC Council, (2004) A Staff Report of the NYC Council Investigation Division on Teacher Attrition
and Retention. http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/1024teachersal.pdf
[4] Finn, Jeremy D., Susan B. Gerber and Jayne
Boyd-Zaharias, (2005). “Small
Classes in the Early Grades, Academic Achievement, and Graduating from High
School,” Journal of Educational Psychology.
www.sfu.ca/~jcnesbit/EDUC220/ThinkPaper/FinnPannozzo2003.pdf
[5] Haimson, Leonie, (2000) Smaller is Better: First-hand Reports of
Early Grade Class Size Reduction in New York City Public Schools, Educational Priorities Panel. http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SmallerIsBetter.pdf
[6]Loeb,
Susanna, Linda Darling-Hammond and John Luczak, (2005), How Teaching Conditions
Predict Teacher Turnover in California Schools. Peabody Journal of Education 80(3):44-70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3497042
[7]
Pas Isenberg, Emily, (2010). “The Effect of Class Size on Teacher Attrition:
Evidence from Class Size Reduction Policies in New York State.” U.S. Bureau of the Census Center for Economic
Studies. Washington, DC. https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2010/CES-WP-10-05.pdf
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