Obama Unlearns His Classroom Lesson - Bloomberg View

Obama Unlearns His Classroom Lesson - Bloomberg View:

Obama Unlearns His Classroom Lesson 

By Editorial Board

As he approaches his last year in office, President Barack Obama seems weirdly passive about protecting one of his signature domestic achievements: education reform. It's a mistake that will undermine future efforts to help American students compete and succeed.

Obama once could claim to have one of the boldest education agendas of any president in recent history. Then, in October, he announced he would seek to limit testing. And now he's indicated he'll sign the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act, a bill that reflects Republicans' unhealthy suspicion of the federal government and Democrats' unhealthy trust of teachers' unions. In other words, the worst of both worlds.

The legislation would weaken or eliminate every major piece of Obama's education agenda. His five-year Race to the Top grant program, for example, was widely admired: It offered more than $4 billion in federal funding to states that took specific steps to improve student performance. Because of Race to the Top, more states set higher standards, allowed charter schools to expand, intervened in failing schools, and used data to evaluate teachers and principals.

The federal government is no longer distributing Race to the Top grants. Yet if Obama signs the Every Student Succeeds Act, his successor would be hard-pressed create something similar, because the new law would make it very difficult to create a state-based incentive program. 

The legislation would also remove qualifications on some federal education funding, sharply reducing the Department of Education's ability to hold states accountable for student performance.

States would still be required to conduct annual tests and report results by race and income, and they would still be required to intervene in failing schools. But they could weigh factors other than test scores and student performance -- such as teacher engagement -- to determine whether schools are meeting standards. A state could determine that all its schools are succeeding even if they have low test scores and high dropout rates, and there wouldn't be much the Department of Education could do about it.

The legislation would also weaken the federal government's ability to encourage states to use data as part of evaluations for teachers and principals, a trend that unions have been fighting for years. Researchshows that the best way to improve schools is to put effective teachers in classrooms. This bill would make it easier for schools to leave failing teachers in place without giving them assistance and insisting on improvement.

Common Core

Of course, nothing prevents states from setting their own high standards and using data to evaluate teachers and principals -- and it would be great if all states did just that. Many Republicans insist that they largely support these reforms; they just don't want the federal government involved. But experience shows that without federal oversight and enforcement, many states tend to take the path of least resistance.

Instead of demanding changes to the bill, the White House seemscontent to praise its aims and the spirit of compromise that led to it. There's much to be said for bipartisanship. But not when both parties are wrong.

To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg View’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net.Obama Unlearns His Classroom Lesson - Bloomberg View:

After No Child Left Behind, will shift to states help or hurt students? - Yahoo News

After No Child Left Behind, will shift to states help or hurt students? - Yahoo News:

After No Child Left Behind, will shift to states help or hurt students?

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on the Every Student Succeeds Act, which passed the House by a wide margin Dec. 2 and, among other things, shifts power from the federal government to the states.

Across Minnesota, the number of native American kids heading to college is on the rise. The reading and math scores of black students are catching up to those of whites. Low-income students, kids whose native language isn’t English, and kids with disabilities are meeting the higher expectations teachers have been setting for them.

The state – a high performer by many education measures – still faces many academic gaps between groups of students. But it is well on its way toward a goal it set in 2012 to cut those disparities in half by 2017.

Minnesota offers an example of what can happen when a state puts a priority on closing achievement gaps. It developed its approach through a waiver to some of the requirements of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Recommended: Take Action:Seeking progress and innovation in education

Now that old, and many say, broken, law is on its way out. State leaders for years have been clamoring for more flexibility in how they hold schools accountable for academic improvement – so they can prioritize and tackle issues as they see fit, not as the federal government dictates.

And Tuesday the Senate is expected to clear the long-awaited law that will finally grant them their wish. The bipartisan compromise known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) alreadypassed the House by a wide margin Dec. 2. 

ESSA will leave the main tools in place to track achievement by categories such as race, income level, disabilities, and English-language learners. But a big question remains: Will this shift to empowering states help or hurt the equity agenda embedded in the original law from the 1960s civil rights era?

Historically, not all states have shown the political will to set high standards for all students, and some observers worry they’ll again feel somewhat off the hook. “There probably will be less attention now on the achievement gap: The [new] law doesn’t force that conversation the way it did under NCLB,” says Chad Aldeman, an associate partner at the nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners. 

Others are more hopeful that many states will stay the course or come up with newinnovations to address achievement gaps – recognizing the impact those can have on their future workforce and economic health.

Recommended: Take Action:Seeking progress and innovation in education

Minnesota’s current accountability system uses a range of measures for school achievement, including how well individual student and subgroup test scores improve from year to year.

The state legislature expanded the system in 2013 to cover all public schools, not just those that receive federal dollars for low-income students. It set up regional “centers of excellence” to provide assistance to schools that were struggling. And it’s dedicating more than $180 million in state funds to the effort.

“We’re focusing on the strengths of our schools and teachers and asking them to do more,” says Brenda Cassellius, the state’s first African-American education commissioner.

So far, two-thirds of the schools are on track to meet their gap-reduction targets.

At TrekNorth, a charter middle and high school in rural Bemidje, the state goals align with a mission to prepare as many students as possible for college through participation in Advanced Placement courses.

The school has been recognized five times in the state’s annual list of Reward Schools, recently scoring an 81 out of 100 on the Multiple Measurements Rating, which takes gap reduction into account.

The more sophisticated accountability system has contributed to a healthy “pressure to hone the subtleties of the craft of teaching,” says the charter school’s executive director Dan McKeon.

Many of the low-income or native American students that make up much of the TrekNorth After No Child Left Behind, will shift to states help or hurt students? - Yahoo News:

Alexander Hails No Child Left Behind Rewrite As Historic Devolution Of D.C. Power | Nashville Public Radio

Alexander Hails No Child Left Behind Rewrite As Historic Devolution Of D.C. Power | Nashville Public Radio:

Alexander Hails No Child Left Behind Rewrite As Historic Devolution Of D.C. Power

• 
  

  In recent years, No Child Left Behind has become so unpopular that conservative Republicans and left-leaning teachers unions have teamed up to replace the law passed in 2002.

  WOODLEYWONDERWORKS VIA FLICKR

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Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is hailing a rewrite of the expired No Child Left Behind standards as the largest “devolution of power in 25 years,” citing a Wall Street Journal editorial. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation this week.

Most states already have waivers exempting them from the Bush-era education accountability system. But Sen. Alexander, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, says the law had to be fixed because states are still jumping through hoops.

“Governors were having to play mother-may-I, coming to Washington to get permission to put in a teacher evaluation program or to come up with a way to fix a low performing school," Alexander told reporters gathered on a conference call. "This will end that.”

In broad terms, testing will still be mandated by the federal government.  But instead of prescribing a turnaround program for stuggling schools and districts, that would be left up to individual states.

Alexander, a former U.S. Secretary of Education, argues states know best what their students need. His proposal, known as the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, passed with comfortable majorities in both chambers after months of negotiation.

But Tennessee’s delegation was not united. Representatives Marsha Blackburn and Scott DesJarlais voted against it, saying the rewrite doesn’t sufficiently curtail the federal government’s role in education.Alexander Hails No Child Left Behind Rewrite As Historic Devolution Of D.C. Power | Nashville Public Radio:

California Revamps School Rankings | NBC Bay Area

California Revamps School Rankings | NBC Bay Area:

California Revamps School Rankings

School officials in San Francisco are explaining the many changes happening in education.

"We're implementing new curriculum to go with the new standards, to go with the new tests," says John Burke, a supervisor at San Francisco Unified School District.

Also new - a different way to evaluate schools. State law requires a move away from standardized test scores.

"It needs to be more than just, include more than just the academics," says Burke.

For 15 years, the API, the Academic Performance Index, has been the yardstick for school success. It's a three-digit number based on test scores. A Blue Ribbon school in the East Bay had an API of 945 out of 1,000. A school on the peninsula had a score of 831. A high-poverty school in San Francisco had a score of 726.

"It gives one number. And it's a nice because you can take that number and compare it to another number," says Eric Heins, the president of the California Teachers Association. "But really it's kind of misleading because it doesn't really tell you what's going on in the school."

Heins is involved in the overhaul of the API.

"Well they may not see an API at all. There won't be a ranking system because there is no point in comparing one school to another school," he says. "What you really want to look at is the school itself and then look at multiple indicators in that school."

Those multiple indicators could include attendance records and graduation rates.

"You want to look at all the different kinds of things that actually indicate whether students are learning in that school," says Heins. "So it's more than just looking at a test score."

Many advocacy groups across the state say the new system should be easy to understand, first and foremost.

"I'm sympathetic to folks saying we don't want to just be judged on a couple of numbers, I get that," says Ted Lempert, president of Children Now. "But on the flip side, accountability is essential to having confidence in our education system."

Lempert says the API aided in accountability.

"The API, with all its faults, was a very simple way to see how your school was California Revamps School Rankings | NBC Bay Area:

Wendy Lecker: Common Core math requires students to justify every answer. Does that make sense? - The Washington Post

Common Core math requires students to justify every answer. Does that make sense? - The Washington Post:

Common Core math requires students to justify every answer. Does that make sense?

Canyon View math teacher, Kylie Findley works with her students during her morning class Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2104, in Cedar City, Utah. Findley, as well as other teachers, are utilizing the common core curriculum in their classroom. (AP Photo/The Spectrum, Asher Swan)

Common Core math has sparked a great deal of contention across the country in the past few years. It has its supporters, those who say that it teaches students to better understand mathematical processes. They also so that many problems parents cite with Common Core math stem not from the standards themselves but from poor teacher training. Critics, though, say the standards throw out proven computational techniques in favor of overly complex methods and wind up confusing students. Some parents and educators have also expressed concern that written math materials for young students are sometimes at a reading level above students’ understanding, thus impeding their ability to stay on track with math.

In this post, Wendy Lecker, a columnist for Hearst Connecticut Media Group and senior attorney at the Education Law Center, takes at another aspect of Common Core math: the requirement that students explain critical look at what she says is a key problem of Common Core math: the requirement that students are supposed to explain and justify every answer. This appeared in the Stamford Advocate, and I am republishing it with permission.

By Wendy Lecker

At parents’ night this fall, a high school math teacher I know begged parents to teach their children long division “the old-fashioned way.” She explained that the new way students had learned long division impedes their ability to understand algebraic factoring. She lamented that students hadn’t been taught certain rote skills, like multiplication tables, that would enable them to perform more complex math operations efficiently.

It turns out that brain science supports this math teacher’s impressions. Rote learning and memorization at an early age are critical in developing math skills.

A study conducted by Stanford Medical school examined the role of a part of the brain, the hippocampus, in the development of math skills in children. The authors noted that a shift to memory-based problem solving is a hallmark of children’s cognitive development in arithmetic as well as other domains. They conducted brain scans of children, adolescents and adults and found that hippocampus plays a critical but time limited role in the development of Common Core math requires students to justify every answer. Does that make sense? - The Washington Post:

What’s behind the Obama administration’s recent ‘180 on standardized tests? | CLASSROOM STRUGGLE

What’s behind the Obama administration’s recent ‘180 on standardized tests?  | CLASSROOM STRUGGLE:

What’s behind the Obama administration’s recent ‘180 on standardized tests? 

 Recently President Obama, in a surprising shift, committed to ending the growing trend of excessive standardized tests being forced on the nation’s public school students. He penned an open-letter to parents and teachers (published by Huffington Post), in it he, “asks the Department of Education to work aggressively with states and school districts to make sure that standardized tests meet three basic criteria… in summary they should be worthy, not take up too much time (2% of classroom time), and one source of assessment data.” The online article also links his testing action plan, which is a more comprehensive strategy to get standardized testing time decreased in U.S. public schools.

     Now to the relatively novice teacher, these words of our president may seem like a welcome relief. Yet for those who know the D.C. shell game, its wise to be highly suspect of this development. For seven years we’ve had to endure his administration’s testing onslaught wrought by RaceToTheTop and continued NoChildLeftBehind policy. Therefore we must ask the question, what is behind Obama’s abrupt departure from over-testing?

     Reflecting on the recent endorsements from both major teacher union presidents (Weingarten and Eskelsen-Garcia) for Hillary Clinton in the primary and the subsequent nationwide backlash from the Rank-and-File as this position was effectively forced upon us — this may be Obama trying to get back teacher union support for Hillary and the Democrats. Yet, more importantly we must keep in mind the nature of the Democratic party and their attempts, every two to four years, to gather support from what is an ever-shrinking base. If anything is said about the two terms of Obama — its served as a constant reminder that the Democrats are not a working class party. After seven years of the corporate education deform movement we should not be fooled by Obama’s last second effort to reverse his own testing-heavy legislation that has favored testing and textbook giants like What’s behind the Obama administration’s recent ‘180 on standardized tests?  | CLASSROOM STRUGGLE:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Dorn Turns ALE Rules/Regs on their Head for Charter Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Dorn Turns ALE Rules/Regs on their Head for Charter Schools:

Dorn Turns ALE Rules/Regs on their Head for Charter Schools

There are many contradictions between what OSPI tells regular districts about Alternative Learning Experiences (ALEs) versus what is being said that will be done for charter schools and ALE programs.

(I have repeatedly tried to get clarity on these issues from OSPI. I am now using the documentation they have at their website.) 

There are two main issues.

Here's the first one via a legislative document reviewing ALEs (bold mine):

For ALE, the WSLP represents the student’s academic program. It describes the course or courses the student is taking, including the learning activities for each course—it defines the student’s full alternative learning experience. Therefore, for an ALE student, there is no basis for the district to pay for any courses, experiences, or services not included in the WSLP.

That pretty much says that the WSLP is the raison d'etre for an ALE.  Now the RCW doesn't have a specific time by which there has to be an WSLP but anOSPI webinar from April 2013 makes it very clear that districts have to have this plan in place for all that follows.

As well, a "certificated teacher" has to approve the WSLP prior to the start date and monthly count date for enrollment.

Referencing the Superintendent's memo from Friday to districts about taking in these charter students via ALEs, the Superintendent seems to say, "WSLP? What WSLP? We don't need those" because, despite the fact that this ALE would have to start almost immediately in mid-December, the Superintendent gives these schools until FEBRUARY to get them filed. 

So what is the ALE program without a WSLP?  Almost makes it look like it's just a paper shield that the charters will have until the Legislature gets around to (possibly) funding them sometime in what? mid-late February? 

From the webinar:
Teacher approval is a method of documenting that a certificated teacher Seattle Schools Community Forum: Dorn Turns ALE Rules/Regs on their Head for Charter Schools:

Is ESSA the ESEA Reauthorization Bill Arne Duncan Was Hoping For? - Politics K-12

Is ESSA the ESEA Reauthorization Bill Arne Duncan Was Hoping For? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Is ESSA the ESEA Reauthorization Bill Arne Duncan Was Hoping For?

 So you've probably heard by now the bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act seeks to rein in future secretaries of education. And it would allow states to chart their own course when it comes to teacher evaluation and school turnarounds, to name a couple of policies closely associated with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and company.

But Duncan sees a lot to like in the legislation—called the Every Student Succeeds Act—he plans to say in a speech Tuesday to the Learning Forward professional development conference just outside Washington. (Read excerpts here.)

"What we've alwaysIs ESSA the ESEA Reauthorization Bill Arne Duncan Was Hoping For? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Dodgers claim pitcher Danny Reynolds off waivers from Angels - True Blue LA

Dodgers claim pitcher Danny Reynolds off waivers from Angels - True Blue LA:

Dodgers claim pitcher Danny Reynolds off waivers from Angels

S ANGELES -- The Dodgers have been busy at the winter meetings, with three reported transactions in various stages of reported completion. But the first official move from Nashville announced on Monday was claiming right-handed pitcher Danny Reynolds off waivers from the Angels.

Reynolds, who turns 25 in May, had a 4.57 ERA in 43 games for Double-A Arkansas in 2015, with 10 saves, 50 strikeouts and 28 walks in 43⅓ innings.

The 2009 sixth-round draft pick was a starter in 2012-2013, when he put up a 4.83 ERA, a 17.6-percent strikeout rate and 9.3-percent walk rate.

In 2014-2015, all 90 of Reynolds' appearances have been in relief, where he put up a 3.59 ERA, a 24.8-percent strikeout rate and 11.2-percent walk rate. Then-Halos general manager Jerry Dipoto told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register in March that a switch to relief bumped up Reynolds' fastball from the low 90s to mid-90s mph.

Reynolds was added to the Angels' 40-man roster in November 2014, and he used an option year in 2015. He has two option years remaining.

With the addition of Reynolds, the Dodgers now have 37 players on their 40-man roster.Dodgers claim pitcher Danny Reynolds off waivers from Angels - True Blue LA:

Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time - Living in Dialogue

Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time - Living in Dialogue:

Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education.  See the intro and links to other posts in the series here.

By Steven Singer.

Sometimes in public school you’ve just got to cut the crap.

No testing. No close reading. No multiple choice nonsense.

Get back to basics – pass out notebooks, crack them open and students just write.

Not an essay. Not a formal narrative. Not an official document. Just pick up a pencil and see where your imagination takes you.

You’d be surprised the places you’ll go.

You might invent a new superhero and describe her adventures in a marshmallow wonderland. You might create a television show about strangers trapped in an elevator. You might imagine what life would be like if you were no bigger than a flea.

Or you might write about things closer to home. You might describe what it’s like to have to take care of your three younger brothers and sisters after school until just before bedtime when your mom comes backfrom her third minimum wage job. You might chronicle the dangers of walking home after dismissal where drug dealers rule certain corners and gangs patrol the allies. You might report on where you got those black and blue marks on your arms, your shoulders, places no one can see when you’re fully clothed.

My class is not for the academic all stars. It’s for children from impoverished families, kids with mostly black and brown skin and test scores that threaten to close their school and put me out of work.

So all these topics and more are fair game. You can write about pretty much whatever you want. I might give you something to get you started. I might ask you a question to get you thinking, or try to challenge you to Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time - Living in Dialogue:

BustED Pencils Trending News: Closed & Sad; Deny; Hmmmm | BustED Pencils

BustED Pencils Trending News: Closed & Sad; Deny; Hmmmm | BustED Pencils:

Closed & Sad; Deny; Hmmmm 

Boring to students and teachers.  Type of bullying.  Follow the rules, do what you are told, ignore the interactive part.  Keep BUSTING PENCILS Barry!!

The Sad Art of Closed Reading

http://www.barrylane.com/2015/12/closed-reading/

RTI raises MANY concerns!

“Response to Intervention”—An Excuse to Deny Services to Students with Learning Disabilities?

http://www.livingindialogue.com/response-intervention-excuse-deny-services-students-learning-disabilities/

Smoke in Mirrors!!!

Success Metrics Questioned in School Program Funded by Goldman

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/business/dealbook/did-goldman-make-the-grade.html?_r=2&referer

Get BustED Pencils Trending News to come right to your in-box!

Enter your email under “SUBSCRIBE” on our Home or Trending News page at bustedpencils.com

Resigned Alabama Teacher of the Year Now in the Running for Alabama Person of the Year! | deutsch29

Resigned Alabama Teacher of the Year Now in the Running for Alabama Person of the Year! | deutsch29:

Resigned Alabama Teacher of the Year Now in the Running for Alabama Person of the Year!

 Ann Marie Corgill

On the evening of December 07, 2015, I had an email from Ann Marie Corgill, the 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year whose October 2015 resignation made national news. (To read about Corgill’s ordeal in detail based upon my exclusive interview with her, see this post.)

The subject line of her email read, “Check this out….”

So I did.

It included a link to this December 07, 2015, AL.com story entitled, “Who Has Your Vote for Alabama’s Person of the Year?”

Sure enough, Corgill is on the ballot:

After a week of voting on 25 of the most shared and talked about stories on AL.com in 2015, our readers narrowed the list down to 10.

What do these 10 have in common?

Some spoke truth to power, such as…

Alabama’s Teacher of the Year who resigned: Ann Marie Corgill, Alabama’s 2014 Teacher of the Year (and a finalist for the national Teacher of the Year honor in 2015), resigned after being shuffled around due to confusion by Birmingham City Schools on whether she was certified to teach her fifth grade students, despite National Board certifications for ages 7-12.

The article includes an opportunity for readers to vote for Alabama Person of the Resigned Alabama Teacher of the Year Now in the Running for Alabama Person of the Year! | deutsch29:

Teachers and police officers may school Rahm. | Reclaim Reform

Teachers and police officers may school Rahm. | Reclaim Reform:

Teachers and police officers may school Rahm.

Rahm is too connected to jail.

Or… is he?

The Chief of Police was fired by Rahm for covering up a police murder. Covered up and paid millions in taxpayer money to the family of the murdered 17 year old black youth. Covered up for 13 months while Rahm gets himself re-elected. Then the head of the “Independent” Police Review Authority, who was personally appointed by Rahm, quits. Next the Chief of Detectives unexpectedly and suddenly leaves.

The CEO of the Chicago Public Schools was imprisoned for fraud. Appointed Board of Education members profit from closing schools and paying charters, charters they are invested in. The Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Accountability Officer of the Chicago Public Schools both jump ship right after Rahm loses an Illinois Supreme Court case which tried to claim that Chicago doesn’t have enough money to pay its debts for teacher and public employee pensions. However Rahm continues to give away millions and millions of tax dollars annually to the connected and their connections. DePaul University, an expensive private Catholic university, will receive millions for building a second basketball arena. Billionaire George Lucas will get megabuck tax dollars to build his museum. The list goes on and on.

But Rahm claims to not have enough money to pay teachers or to keep schools from closing. Even more teachers are scheduled to be fired and even more programs will be cut Teachers and police officers may school Rahm. | Reclaim Reform:

Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time | gadflyonthewallblog

Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time | gadflyonthewallblog:

Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education.  See the intro and links to other posts in the series here.

---

Sometimes in public school you’ve just got to cut the crap.

No testing. No close reading. No multiple choice nonsense.

Get back to basics – pass out notebooks, crack them open and students just write.

Not an essay. Not a formal narrative. Not an official document. Just pick up a pencil and see where your imagination takes you.

You’d be surprised the places you’ll go.

You might invent a new superhero and describe her adventures in a marshmallow wonderland. You might create a television show about strangers trapped in an elevator. You might imagine what life would be like if you were no bigger than a flea.

Or you might write about things closer to home. You might describe what it’s like to have to take care of your three younger brothers and sisters after school until just before bedtime when your mom comes back from her third minimum wage job. You might chronicle the dangers of walking home after dismissal where drug dealers rule certain corners and gangs patrol the alleys. You might report on where you got thoseblack and blue marks on your arms, your shoulders, places no one can see when you’re fully clothed.

My class is not for the academic all stars. It’s for children from impoverished families, kids with mostly black and brown skin and test scores that threaten to close their school and put me out of work.

So all these topics and more are fair game. You can write about pretty much whatever you want. I might give you something to get you started. I might ask you a Putting the Arts Back in Language Arts – One Journal at a Time | gadflyonthewallblog:

K-3 students in Sacramento City schools to see smaller class sizes in fall 2016 | The Sacramento Bee

K-3 students in Sacramento City schools to see smaller class sizes in fall 2016 | The Sacramento Bee:

K-3 students in Sacramento City schools to see smaller class sizes in fall 2016

Katherine Hoffmore, 48, occupies her students in line at Greer Elementary as they get ready to go home for the day. Expected to cost about $7.5 million a year for salaries and benefits, the decision to lower class sizes brings the district in line with a new state formula that gives districts more money if they reduce their class sizes by the year 2020. Sacramento City Unified plans to add 75 teachers at 47 schools. Renee C. Byer rbyer@sacbee.com

Sacramento City Unified School District plans to slash class sizes in kindergarten through third grade next fall to an average of 24 students, reversing recession era cuts that boosted the number of children in many classrooms to 30 or more.

Classes in the district currently average 29 students at schools with high numbers of low-income students. At other schools, the average can be as high as 32 children.

Expected to cost about $7.5 million a year for salaries and benefits, the decision brings the district in line with a new state formula that gives districts more money if they reduce their class sizes by the year 2020. Sacramento City Unified plans to add 75 teachers at 47 schools.

“Aside from it being the right thing to do, it’s really following through on what the state has set as a requirement,” Superintendent Jose Banda said. “It’s really what we believe in. We believe that smaller class sizes are better for kids and better for teachers. That’s the bottom line.”

Patricia Gentle, whose two children attend H.W. Harkness Elementary in south Sacramento, said there are 29 students in her daughter’s kindergarten class. “That’s a lot of 5-year-olds,” she said.

“The lower class size will give the teacher more time to spend on each individual,” said Gentle, who works elsewhere in the district as a teaching assistant. “They should have done it along time ago.”

I MADE A PROPOSAL TO THE DISTRICT TO ACCELERATE CLASS SIZE REDUCTIONS THIS YEAR, AND THEY REJECTED IT. SO WE’RE VERY PLEASED THAT THEY DECIDED TO DO IT NEXT YEAR.

Nikki Milevsky, president, Sacramento City Teachers Association

Some large school districts in the Sacramento area already have reduced class sizes. Elk Grove Unified School District, for instance, has reached the state’s 2020 target for grades K-3. Davis Joint Unified School District has 24- or 25-student averages at its school sites and will be fully compliant by next fall.

All K-3 grades in Rancho Cordova have met the 24-student threshold in the Folsom CordovaK-3 students in Sacramento City schools to see smaller class sizes in fall 2016 | The Sacramento Bee: