Notes for Final Class Size Amendment
On Monday June 12, the Operations Work Group of the Madison Metropolitan School District received an update on the 2017-18 budget, and discussed amendments submitted by Board Members (video here, meeting materials may be found at BoardDocs, here; it appears a second cost analysis on class size prepared by the district has not been posted on BoardDocs, it may be found here, a cost analysis prepared by community members is somewhat lower).
An amendment I submitted establishing “hard caps” on class sizes, and differentiating among classes and schools by grade span and a different poverty calculation than participation in the state Achievement Gap Reduction program (AGR, formally SAGE) has garnered much attention and more than a little support. My amendment, with an explanation of poverty measure may be found here (a little more below). The next step is preparing a “final” amendment for submission and vote (with the understanding that the amendment may be amended at the June 26, 2017 meeting, prior to a vote). That process is the topic of this post.
The intent of my initial amendment was three-fold. First, I wanted to get some sense of the costs involved. Second, I wanted to shift thinking away from average class size to maximums, and away from AGR as the only means to differentiate between high and low poverty schools in this context. Last, I wanted to give people opportunities to think, and talk, and write about class size in our district. The numbers I used were not my ideal class sizes, and not intended to be final.
I have learned a little more about costs; made some impacts in how class size is being considered; and learned much about all aspects of class size impacts from the many staff, parents, and teachers who have opined in public and private. Thank you all.
I want this discussion to continue, but soon the focus must shift to making concrete progress in addressing the most important class size issues in our district. To do this I have to draft a budget amendment, and try to get it passed.
This involves prioritizing among the many issues and actions that have been discussed, and finding mechanisms to budget according to those priorities. In an effort to be transparent, and as a plea for one more round of feedback and ideas Notes for Final Class Size Amendment | AMPS: