Small-Class Advantages Apparent in O.C.

During writing lessons at Madison Elementary in Santa Ana, it’s not uncommon for boisterous first-graders to shout out answers in Frances Okura’s class to gain attention. But at Foxborough Elementary in Aliso Viejo, the noise level doesn’t rise above the din of the air conditioner as Linda Kiefer roams from desk to desk, checking her students’ work.

Both teachers use identical reading textbooks in their classrooms. But although Kiefer’s pupils started school one month after Okura’s, her students were finishing a lesson on the letter S, while Okura’s kids were on letter N.

A key difference between the classes? Okura works with 29 kids; Kiefer with 20.

Nine fewer students may not seem drastic, but experts say that at this grade level, the smaller the class size, the more effective reading and math instruction will be.

When almost all Orange County elementary schools start this week, most will have lowered class sizes in accordance with a state plan that awards districts $650 per pupil if by February they reduce to 20 the number of students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade. Districts, however, must submit a plan by November to take part in the program, which is intended to reverse sliding reading and math scores statewide.

The Capistrano and Santa Ana unified school districts are among 23 in Orange County that have committed to reducing class sizes; only Anaheim City has not. Administrators there say they may implement double sessions this year in order to shrink class sizes in the district, which has minimal space and funds to expand.

A look at Santa Ana Unified’s Madison and Capistrano Unified’s Foxborough shows some of the advantages in reduced classes--and some of the pitfalls in achieving them.

In Kiefer’s classroom of 20, the extra space and fewer children have opened a myriad of advantages. Reading groups are as small as five students each. One lesson flows smoothly to the next. There’s more time for student participation. There’s extra room for more books. There are fewer distractions to foster rowdy behavior. All these advantages help students advance faster, Kiefer said.

“I can now walk around and spot-check their work, right then and there,” Kiefer said. “That way they learn from their mistakes faster and will less likely repeat them.”

In 22 years of teaching, Kiefer said, her classes have never dipped to 20. In previous years, 30 students usually packed her classroom, making it cumbersome even to roll in an overhead projector. But this year, 10 of those faces magically vanished after Capistrano Unified school officials voted to slash class sizes to 20 in the first through third grades.

Foxborough Elementary, one of the four year-round schools in Capistrano Unified, was one of the first in its district to limit class sizes to 20 in grades one through three. Adding six new teachers and shrinking classes to as few as 18 pupils came with few hitches for this 450-student campus.

The school was able to swiftly achieve the reduction by combining two computer labs into one, converting a language room into a classroom, using a spare room and adding three portable classrooms.

In addition to the class-size reduction, Foxborough Elementary this year was awarded a $40,000 federal grant, unrelated to the state reduction program, to help improve literacy in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“We’ve been really lucky,” said Foxborough Principal Donald Mahoney. “Everything just fell into place.”

With the extra grant money, Foxborough will hire three teachers’ aides to help out in reading programs. The money will also pay for substitute teachers when the full-time staff attends additional literacy and reading training. And the smaller class sizes permitted teachers to individually test students’ reading skills during the first weeks of school.

“This year I was able to assess who needs more help in reading early on in the year,” Kiefer said. “The greatest benefit is that we can better respond to their individual needs.”

Some experts lauded such efforts, saying smaller class sizes can improve students’ performance only by strengthening academic programs.

“Reducing the quantity of students in the classroom without quality instruction would not accomplish very much,” said Louis Miron, chairman of UC Irvine’s department of education, citing studies on the issue. “A child at an early age can gain verbal fluency and reading skills in a smaller class size where there’s more interaction, use of language.”

To measure the effectiveness of smaller classes, Capistrano Unified will test first- through third-graders this month in order to assess their reading and math skills. The students will be retested in the spring to determine any progress in their performance.

“We intend to take the accountability aspect of this program very seriously,” said Capistrano Unified Supt. James A. Fleming.

Capistrano Unified was one of the first Orange County school districts to shrink classes this year. Administrators said they were able to implement the program swiftly because they could reserve the necessary funds soon after the governor announced the funding bill in May.

Other districts, however, said they lagged in reducing class sizes because they face a host of challenges that their suburban counterparts like Capistrano Unified don’t often encounter: too little space and too many children, the bane of districts such as Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

Because these districts were behind in passing their reduction programs, their students will contend with various inconveniences in coming months. Some schools will squeeze 40 students and two teachers into one room.

Others opted to house students in temporary classrooms, such as libraries and cafeterias, until their portables arrive. And in the worst scenario, scores of students will have to switch to a new teacher midyear, an option experts say could adversely affect children’s learning.

“There will be bumps along the way,” said Alan Trudell, a spokesman for Garden Grove Unified, one of the last Orange County districts to pass a reduction plan. “We will have to live with less than the ideal condition as we begin to implement the program.”

At Madison Elementary, Okura expects to lose at least nine of her 29 students to another teacher when a new classroom is added during the winter. Her school, with a total of 1,220 students, is still in the process of hiring five new teachers and is awaiting five portable classrooms to shrink first-grade classes.

If the portable rooms don’t arrive by the February deadline, Okura may have to double up with another teacher in one room. Her current classroom, considered one of the more spacious rooms on the campus, is already crowded with 29 students.

Teaching reading in a district like Santa Ana Unified, where 71% of the students have limited English skills, is one of the toughest challenges for instructors.

All of Okura’s students, for instance, come from homes where English is not the primary language. Her students fall in a wide range of reading skills. One boy already reads at the third-grade level. Another child has trouble legibly writing the alphabet.

“They don’t all start off at the same place,” Okura said. “I have to take some of them by the hand to help them form the letters.

“We have to strengthen their reading at an early age,” she added with determination. “If they get to fourth and fifth grades with poor reading skills, all we’ll be doing is trying to catch up.”

Okura divides her class, brimming with its 29 students, into two reading groups that arrive at school in different shifts to gain more personal instruction. Because the attention span of a large class is short, Okura switches to another activity every 15 to 20 minutes. There’s rarely time to look over every child’s work. Each day is like a marathon and the only way to keep on track is to list the daily class schedule on the blackboard.

“Things get backed up all the time,” said Okura, who has been teaching for 18 years. “Sometimes I’m spreading myself really thinly.”

There’s so much commotion that minor and major problems sometimes go undetected--as when George Uata, 5, was accidentally pushed against a desk amid the scurry to get ready for lunch. His thigh began to bleed because he had ruptured a rash when he bumped his leg. Too pained to clearly convey what happened, George whimpered, but no one noticed.

And there’s the shy, bespectacled Jeannette Hernandez. After everyone in the class completed a drawing exercise, all the proud children showed off their artwork--except Jeannette. The quiet 5-year-old girl hadn’t gotten a drawing pad, but no one had noticed.

“It’s almost impossible to tend to each one of them,” Okura said.

Okura said she yearns for the day when she will have only 20 faces in her classroom so that she can address each of their needs. Although she said she’s excited about the upcoming class size reduction, several questions continue to swirl in her mind.

“How long will the funding last? Will we have enough qualified teachers?” she asked. “If the state can’t answer those questions, I would rather continue to teach 30 students.”

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Reducing Ratios

A $650-per-student state award has impelled 23 of Orange County’s 24 school districts to attempt reducing pupil/teacher ratios in the lowest grades to 20-1. Plans must be in place by November and reductions complete by February. Most districts have achieved the changes; Anaheim City is the only district still working on a plan. A look at the current status:

*--*

Teachers Portables Grade needed to needed to levels cut class cut class District reduced sizes*** sizes*** Brea-Olinda Unified 1 6 0 Buena Park 1 14 0 Capistrano Unified 1, 2, 3* 150 50 Centralia 1, 2* 28 7 Cypress 1 12 0 Fountain Valley 1, 2 26 0 Fullerton 1 31 ** Garden Grove Unified 1, 1-2**** 70 55 Huntington Beach City 1 14 6 Irvine Unified 1, 2* 33 0 La Habra City 1 12 12 Laguna Beach Unified 1, 2 4 0 Los Alamitos Unified 1-3 30 8 Magnolia 1, 2* 32 32 Newport-Mesa Unified 1, 2 67 3 Ocean View 1-3 49 0 Orange Unified 1 13 0 Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified 1, 2* 39 8 Saddleback Valley Unified K-2 130 46 Santa Ana Unified 1 50 60 Savanna 1 7 0 Tustin Unified 1-3 64 0 Westminster 1-3 62 42 Total 943 329

Open school w/smaller District ratio? Brea-Olinda Unified Yes Buena Park Yes Capistrano Unified Yes Centralia Yes Cypress Yes Fountain Valley No Fullerton Yes Garden Grove Unified No Huntington Beach City Yes Irvine Unified Yes La Habra City Yes Laguna Beach Unified Yes Los Alamitos Unified Yes Magnolia Yes Newport-Mesa Unified Yes Ocean View Yes Orange Unified Yes Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified Yes Saddleback Valley Unified Yes Santa Ana Unified No Savanna Yes Tustin Unified Yes Westminster Yes Total

*--*

* Will phase in at this grade level where and when possible before February deadline

** Undetermined

*** Estimates

**** Classes combining first- and second-graders

Source: Individual districts

Researched by TINA NGUYEN / Los Angeles Times