District 6 parents want and need smaller classes! Contract for Excellence testimony by Tory Frye

To submit your own comments on the city's Contract for Excellence/class size proposal, email ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov  by July 19.  If you'd like to share your comments on the blog on class size, please email us at info@classsizematters.org 

Testimony at Contracts for Excellence Hearing

June 18, 2014

by Tory Frye, District 5 and 6 parent and elected parent member, Community Education Council Six [CEC6]

My name is Tory Frye and I am the parent of public school students in Districts 5 and 6 and am an elected parent member of CEC6.  I am here this evening representing thousands of District Six parents; I’ll tell you why I think this is true in a moment.  

We know that the primary purpose of the C4E is to reduce class size and yet the DOE has chosen not to do this.  Our CEC6 President has spoken eloquently on why reducing class size is so crucial in our district, which has a significant proportion of current or former English Language Learners, as well as special needs students (and often students who are classified as both).  Educators, students and parents will testify to the difficulty of teaching and learning for these students in large class sizes.

Here are the facts about class size in D6:

-       In 2013-14 the average class size for K-3 was 24; according to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement, which gave rise to the C4E contracts, we should be at 20.

-       We have the largest average class size in D6 since 2006.

-       6 D6 schools have K class averages of 25+

-       10 D6 schools have 1-3 class averages of 25+

-       5 D6 schools have at least one 1-3 class with 30+

-       14 D6 schools have at least one 4-8 class with 30+ 

-       PS 366 has a K class with 28 students

-       PS 153 has a 1^st grade class with 32 students

-       PS 28 has a 2^nd grade class with 31 students

-       PS 132, a struggling school, has a 3^rd grade class with 29 students

-       The average D6 utilization rate is 94%

-       13 schools are over 100% utilization, including PS/IS 187, which is blocks away from the Mother Cabrini High School, which the DOE has handed over to Success Academy, a school that was never desired in our district, despite an overcrowded and high performing school mere blocks away.

-       Analysis* indicates that we need another 900 seats

-       D6 also has 19 “TCUs” (aka trailers) at 3 schools, not including the “mini buildings” at schools like PS 192/325, which, if eliminated, would mean we need another 681 seats.

-       So we have class sizes that exceed the CFE targets and the need for additional seats in our district just to reduce current, non C4E-compliant, overcrowding.

-       This is why we want the DOE to spend the entirety of the C4E dollars on class size reduction by hiring more teachers, adhering to the CFE class size targets, and creating more classrooms by aligning the Capital Plan to the CFE class size targets.

-       We reject the excuse that the state has not provided the money and ask that Mayor de Blasio use his influence to get the money we are owed in order to reduce class size and/or use the city funds to achieve these goals.

-       To return to why I think I speak for thousands of D6 parents?  Here is our analysis of the Learning Environment Surveys for D6:

·      Two-thirds (68%) of parents rank smaller class size as the #1 improvement that could be made at their schools

·      Twenty-one of 25 schools (84%) rank it as either the #1 or #2 improvement.

School	#1	#2
Smaller class size #1 (17/25 or 68%)
PS 5	Smaller class size	Hands on learning
PS 8	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 28	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 48	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 98	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 128	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS 132	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 152	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS 153	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS 178	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS/IS 187	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS 189	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS/IS 278	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 325	Smaller class size	More state test prep
PS 314 (Muscota New School)	Smaller class size	Less state test prep
PS 366 (Washington Heights Acad.)	Smaller class size	Stronger enrichment
PS 210 (Twenty-first Century)	Smaller class size	More state test prep
Smaller Class Size #2 (4/25 or 16%)
PS 115	More state test prep	Smaller class size
PS 4	More state test prep	Smaller class size
PS 18	More hand on learning/more test prep	Smaller class size
Amistad (PS/IS 311)	More state test prep	Smaller class size
Class size # or more (4/25 or 16%)
PS 368 (Hamilton Heights Acad.)	More state test prep	More effective leadership
PS 192	Stronger enrichment	Hands on learning
PS 173	Stronger enrichment	More state test prep
PS 513 (PS 513)	Stronger arts	Stronger enrichment

* D6 class size analysis via Class Size Matters

Send the DOE and the Mayor a message today -- so that class sizes don't grow even larger next year

On Saturday, the NY Post reported on the rapid expansion of class sizes in the NYC public schools.  Not only have class size averages increased to their highest level in 15 in grades K-3, and the highest levels in grades 4-8 since 2002, but last year more than 330,000 students were sitting in classes of 30 or larger – substantially more than the year before.  

Sadly, there is nothing in your child’s school budget or nearly any NYC school budget that will likely reverse this trend.  Except for major increases in spending for preK, afterschool, and charter schools, school budgets are flat at best, and given increased teacher salaries and student enrollment, class sizes will likely rise to even greater levels next year.  

This is unless the mayor and the Chancellor make special efforts to reverse course – and revise their deeply flawed Contracts for Excellence plan which includes more than $500 million in spending, but includes no targeted or district-wide allocations for smaller classes, nor any realistic plan to reduce class size, though this is required by the C4E law, passed by the State Legislature in 2007:

In a city school district in a city having a population of one million or more inhabitants such contract shall also include a plan to reduce average class sizes, as defined by the commissioner, within five years for the following grade ranges: (A) pre-kindergarten-third grade; (B) fourth-eighth grade; and (C) high school.

Please email the DOE at ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov and let them know if you think they should be reducing class size – the deadline for public comments is July 19 -- and copy the mayor at bdeblasio@cityhall.nyc.gov.   Please also copy us at info@classsizematters.org

Urge them to live up to their promises to NYC children and create a real class size reduction plan instead of the fundamentally defective proposal they have put forward.  If you like, you can copy us at info@classsizematters.org   A sample message is below. 

When running for mayor, Bill de Blasio made repeated promises to reduce class size if elected, including that he would abide by the plan submitted by the city in 2007 that called for class sizes on average of no larger than 20 in grades K-3, 23 in 4^th-8^th grades and 25 in HS – and if necessary, to raise revenue to do so.   (See for example, p. 4 of this NYC KidsPAC candidate survey, and p.2  of this document de Blasio personally filled out and signed at a mayoral forum on June 14, 2013.)

Yet the C4E proposal the DOE has posted for next year would allot no specific dollars to reduce class size, and would instead allow schools to use these funds six different ways, including minimizing class size INCREASES, which no rational person can interpret as a commitment to lower class size.  

Their proposed plan is a continuation of the dismal Bloomberg era, in which the DOE has used these dollars for the last seven years as a slush fund to finance its own priorities – and then gave whatever was left over for schools to fill in whatever budget gaps they had.  We have seen the deplorable consequences: class sizes growing out of control. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. 

To make things worse, the DOE ended the early grade class size funding program in 2010 which they had promised to keep, and stopped capping class sizes at 28 in the early grades in 2011.  None of these policy choices have been reversed by the new administration. 

The city’s posted plan appears to subvert the law in at least two ways:  A) It provides no evidence that it will lead to smaller classes.  2) It admits that the funds are being used to supplant (or substitute) for its own budget cuts to schools. 

Please submit your comments to today – the deadline is July 19 – by emailing them at ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov and copy the Mayor at bdeblasio@cityhall.nyc.gov

A sample message is below – but if you can, please personalize this message by including details of your child’s situation and explain why this issue is important to you.

To: ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov  and bdeblasio@cityhall.nyc.gov

 

Class sizes are now larger than any time in 15 years in the early grades, and this year, more than 330,000 children were squeezed into classes of 30 or more.  If enacted, your Contracts for Excellence proposal would allow this unacceptable situation to worsen.  It contains no specific funding to reduce class size, even though a plan to lower class size is a required part of the law, and instead allows schools to use these funds to increase class size.

If this proposal is not substantially revised, under your watch, class sizes will be even larger next year.  I urge you to revise this proposal by taking the following steps, at minimum: 

1- Invest a substantial share of the C4E funds as part of a targeted initiative towards lowering class size and make sure that these dollars are spent accordingly; 2- Restore the early grade class size reduction program that the DOE eliminated in 2010; and 3- Return to capping class sizes in grades 1-3 at 28.    

NYC children deserve a quality education and this cannot happen without providing them with smaller classes.

Yours,  name and address.