Bigger class sizes seen as a step backward - ContraCostaTimes.com

Bigger class sizes seen as a step backward - ContraCostaTimes.com

Bigger class sizes seen as a step backward

After 14 years and more than $10 billion spent for smaller class sizes, many California classrooms in the fall will move in the opposite direction.

In just a few months, classrooms across the state will increase their student-to-teacher ratios in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms from 20 students to as many as 30, essentially reversing what was advocated more than a decade ago in better economic times.

"My biggest fear is not knowing my students the way I got to know them when I had 20 and not knowing their needs and just being spread too thin," said Renee Chipman, first-grade teacher at Valle Vista Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga.

It's not that educators haven't advocated for smaller class sizes,

First-grade teacher Renee Chipman teaches her students math this month at Valle Vista Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga. Chipman's class will increase to 30 students next year. (Jennifer Cappuccio-Maher/Staff Photographer)

but the state's dwindling cash flow and budget crisis has forced many districts to lay off teachers, resulting in some teachers having to take on combination-grade classes, additional students and responsibilities, educators said.

"It's not about what's good for kids or education, it's about economic survival, and that's why you see these decisions to put more students into a classroom," said Ron Leon, Cal Poly Pomona associated professor of graduate studies in education.

Concerns in the mid-1990s about how students performed on a national test coupled with California having some of the largest class sizes in the nation were the primary reasons why the state pushed for class size reduction.

But the idea is no longer a reality for K-3 educators, who