Class-size debate at Woodland District 50

Two Woodland Elementary District 50 board members have staked out opposite positions on whether it matters that average class sizes are to increase for many students because of the dismissal of 16 teachers for the 2010-11 academic year.

Gurnee-based Woodland board members last week voted 6-1 in favor of a restructuring plan related to how students are grouped, which officials said resulted in the 16 teacher cuts for an expected $723,094 savings. It was part of $2.8 million in budget reductions and revenue generators approved by the board for the next school year.

Officials said class sizes for younger children will be kept as low as possible. The projected range is 18 to 20 pupils in primary school and kindergarten classrooms, and 23 to 25 students in grades one through three.

Woodlands' average kindergarten class size was 17 in 2009, according to the most recent state report card. The average stood at 20 pupils for first through third grades.

Class sizes are projected to increase more significantly for students in grades four through eight.

Recommendations are for classes to range from 24 to 27 students in grades four and five at Woodland Intermediate School. Officials said they also project a range of 24 to 27 students per classroom for grades six through eight at Woodland Middle School.

Figures in the 2009 report card showed Woodland Intermediate had an average class size of 19 students in fourth and fifth grades. At the middle school, the class sizes ranged from 19 in sixth grade to about 20 in seventh and eighth grades.

District 50 board member Terry Hall said she's unsure whether concerns about larger class sizes are valid.

"I don't think small class size is the Holy Grail," Hall said at a meeting last week. "I think we're going to be revisiting that a lot this year."

Hall's point is supported by a study issued last month by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has made more than $2 billion in grants in an effort to create better U.S. high schools.

"A teacher's effectiveness has more impact on student learning than any other factor under the control of school systems, including class size, school size and the quality of after-school programs," says the Gates Foundation's report, "Empowering Effective Teachers: Strategies for Implementing Reforms."

Hall's remarks about class size were challenged by Woodland board President Lawrence Gregorash, a former classroom teacher. He was the lone vote last week against eliminating the teacher posts and creating larger classes for grades four through eight.

Gregorash said larger classes are known to create a "learning problem" for students because they have less contact with teachers.

"I'll match you study for study that class size makes a difference," Gregorash told Hall.

Smaller class sizes are supported by the National Education Association union, which supports teachers. The union says results from a large-scale experiment about 20 years ago, called the Tennessee Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio, back its stance.

Kindergarten classes of 13 to 17 pupils were a month ahead of children in rooms with 22 to 25 students when an academic year ended, according to the Tennessee study. After second grade, the pupils in smaller rooms were roughly two months ahead.

The NEA considers 15 students to be the optimum class size, particularly for kindergarten and first grade.