Smaller is better

Andrew Wainer

As Ocean View High School freshmen settle into their desks during English

courses this school year they are likely to notice something is missing

-- half the class.

Classroom size reduction programs in ninth-grade English classes at Ocean

View and Marina high schools have capped the number of students in each

class at 20 for the first time in the district’s history.

And students, teachers and administrators say in this case, more is not

better.

“I immediately noticed a different dynamic in the classroom,” Ocean View

English teacher Jim Sebring said as his class divided into groups for

cooperative work. “Kids seemed much more settled and calm.”

The program, instituted with the help of state and federal funds, has

been a boon for the 27 year teaching veteran. “Kids are able to get more

writing assignments done because the time between completing a paper and

grading it is so much shorter with half the number of students,” Sebring

said excitedly. “I get to know the kids twice as quick as before. There

is no question that the reduction has been an advantage.”

Ocean View High School Principal Karen Gilden echoes Sebring’s

sentiments.

“The reduction has helped new teachers ease into teaching positions, and

has helped veteran staff who are accustomed to teaching classes double

the size,” she said.

Although the district has not yet formally assessed the program’s

success, Gilden says feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Teachers

cite less paperwork, more contact with students and better discipline as

some of the advantages of the program.

Ocean View plans to conduct its own formal surveys of the program near

the end of the school year.

But whatever assessment conclusions the district comes up with, it is

clearly popular among the school’s most important sector -- students.

“I like the new classes better. There is more one-on-one contact with the

teacher,” lanky 15-year-old Phil Hann said.

Katie Tanner, 14, agreed: “Teachers spend a little more time with all

the students in these classes.”

But in spite of the kudos from students and administrators, funding for

the reduction program, like so much in public education, depends on the

whims of politicians in Sacramento.

Gilden keeps a guarded optimism about the future of class reduction

programs. “We are on year-to-year funding so there is no guarantee that

it will continue next year,” she said. “But right now the state

legislature is supportive of educational programs.”

Sebring will enjoy the new set-up while it lasts. “Its future,” he

shrugs, “is out of our hands.”