On Saturday, Arne Duncan warned governors about "dumb" education cuts and then suggested even dumber cuts, like increasing class size:
"Duncan also said that states should think selectively about increasing class sizes. The father of two grade-school-age children said he'd rather his kids be in a bigger class with a better teacher than a smaller class with a lousy one. He suggested teachers could get paid extra for getting a bigger class..."
Now can anyone explain how that would help kids? Pay teachers more to teach more students, each of which would get less attention and and a lower quality of education? Talk about paying more for less.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the US Department of Education (which he heads) points out that class size reduction is one of only a handful of reforms that have been proven to work through rigorous evidence.
Duncan, whose speech was peppered with references to "you guys"... is popular even with many conservative Republicans... Sixteen governors listened to his speech, which followed a presentation from the head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD official said the U.S. is trailing other developed countries on a host of important measures. Ontario, Canada, was held out as a model.
Except that Ontario has reduced class size systematically since 2003 across the province -- just as Finland did, decades earlier, propelling that country to its success.
See how Ontario has systematically reduced class size in the early grades since 2003 -- the opposite direction NYC schools and others throughout the nation have taken since then.
In today's Washington Post, Bill Gates took up this same dumb refrain -- with a vengeance. He again suggests that class sizes should be increased, and makes the following claim:
In a 2008 survey funded by the Gates Foundation, 83 percent of teachers said they would be happy to teach more students for more pay.
Actually not! What the survey showed is that many teachers would take a $5,000 pay increase instead of a reduction in class size of two students per class -- which is very different from preferring an increase in their class size.
Not to mention that in survey after survey, teachers say that the best way to improve their effectiveness would be to reduce class size -- over salary increases, merit pay or any other policy. (For example, see this national survey from Public Agenda, "A Sense of Calling: Who Teaches and Why," in which 86 percent of teachers said that reducing would a "very effective" way to improve the quality of instruction, far above increasing salaries, more professional development or any other method cited.)
In today's oped, Gates also claims that "After the first few years, seniority seems to have no effect on student achievement." This is completely erroneous. See our fact sheet on teacher experience; showing student achievement gains are correlated with as much as twenty years of teaching experience.
In fact, as research reveals, there are only two observable, objective factors tied to more effective teaching - class size and more experience. And it's very sad that Gates and Duncan -- along with the other corporate privateers -- are attempting to undermine both.
Follow Leonie Haimson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/leoniehaimson
It costs money to have smaller class sizes. If we want solid outcomes for all children, we need equitable class sizes. Children in need of compensatory education should have even smaller numbers of students in their classes, so that teachers can bestow their attention, guidance and love more generously.
Non-educators, some holding key government positions, are now rationalizing away the critical concept of class size and the idea that senior teachers are more effective than new ones. See the forpublicedblogspot video, in which one principal challenges Cathie Black on this. Black responds to the principal saying that there is an economic crisis. We must fill in the blanks ourselves, here.
Like any other profession, nothing can replace knowledge gained through lived experience. And nothing can replace the moments of the teacher's attention and knowing in our young people's school experience.
& other media corporations
(eg. instead of the "BET" channel being utilized
for positive, inspirational, educational
or meaningful programming --
it has mostly
broadcast the worst sociopathic, demeaning,
undermining junk -- promoting
gangsterism & exploiting our vulnerable youth
with pernicious mind-killing crap.
FACT! --
Where is the "accountability" for Wall Street
& elite financiers,
such as MERRILL LYNCH and OPPENHEIMER,
previously the MAIN INVESTORS & SHAREHOLDERS
owning majority stock in the company
that produced the 'GRAND THEFT AUTO' video game
as its main product !!!
Also, what about the corporate soda-pop
& junk food pushers targeting children ?!
The reality is that ethical, caring, dedicated
public school teachers have been the
'good samaritans' courageously
teaching with tremendous effort daily
to educate & constructively help chidren --
to transcend, overcome hardship,
to cultivate wellbeing & achievement --
despite the grotesque obstacles
& destruction foisted on us by
irresponsible, unscrupulous, rapacious and
duplicitous corporate execs. & financial elites,
(societally-sabotaging/damaging,
corrupt oligarchs, such as Goldman Sachs,
J.P.Morgan/Rothschild scamsters et. al.
who've caused millions of chidren & families to be homeless.
===========================
The astute reader would realize that such success just might correspond to class size reductions. The onus to explain the graph in that context therefore falls on Duncan and the privatizers, whose contradictory views of wanting improvement while at the same time increasing class sizes are Ms. Haimson's point in the first place.
Basically they are advocating a factory-model instead of teaching for the 21st Century. It's all about cost-cutting.