Comments on the city's Contract for Excellence plan from CEC District 2
Dear Chancellor Walcott,
We, the Community Education Council District 2, submit this letter to register, yet again, our objections on the Contracts for Excellence Proposed Plan FY14.
We remain firmly committed to the letter and the intent of the 2007-2008 Education Budget and Reform Act, arising out of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York litigation. We believe reducing class sizes is one of the most effective ways to improve instruction. Much has been said about the importance of the effectiveness of teachers but anyone who has spent any time teaching in the classroom knows even the most “effective” teacher teaches better in a smaller class. Today with the Special Education Reform that places more students with special needs in the least restrictive environment (i.e., general education classes), making individualized instruction even more critical, smaller classes are the key to successful classrooms.
We are therefore deeply concerned that not only have class sizes not been reduced as a result of the Contracts for Excellence plans of recent years, but the NYC Department of Education has seemingly abandoned efforts to reduce class sizes.
In District 2 despite several new elementary schools coming online in the past four years, many of our schools continue to have class sizes that are higher than the target class sizes of the City’s Class Size Reduction Plan. More alarmingly the trend appears to be upward, due largely to the series of budget cuts. It is a travesty that schools in District 2 now have the capacity to reduce class sizes at long last but are unable to do so for lack of resources. It is also difficult to simply blame the sluggish economy for lack of