I have posted my October newsletter for your viewing (hopefully) pleasure. It can also be viewed from our district's home page.
One topic that I have posted relates to class size and composition. As readers may know, Section 76 of the School Act lays out the requirements in relation to class size (maximum size and highest allowable average for kindergarten and grades 1-3) as well as class sizes beyond which teachers must give consent (grades 4-7) or be consulted (grades 8-12) and highest allowable averages for grades 4-7 and 8-12. The Class Size Regulation provides direction for how those calculations are to be made and defines what is meant by consultation. The Act also requires principals to consult with teachers for classes which have more than 3 students with identified special needs and for whom an Individual Education Plan is required under the IEP Order.
As I said in my newsletter, we do our best to allocate resources to schools in ways that optimize programs and services, yet we still find ourselves with some classes that are rather large and complex, and we do what we can to support our teachers and support staff in serving the needs of a wide range of students. All of the work of class organization and principals' consultation with teachers has led to the preparation of a spreadsheet report that lists all of the classes in our school district along with for each class the number of students, the number of identified students with special needs, and a rationale for any class over 30. This report will be submitted to the Minister then posted to our district website and to a Ministry website by the end of October as required.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
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9 comments:
Being a fan of Daniel Pink's book myself, I would say that the six principles he addresses are excellent pillars for conversation for the Professional Growth Council regarding engaged learning.
With these six principles in mind, alongside the understanding of the application of multiple intelligences in the classroom, I believe that the unfortunate need for larger classrooms will be less of a challenge than is currently the case.
I am looking forward to hearing/reading the progression of the discussion about both class sizes AND engaged learning.
Good point. As someone who has taught some very large classes and had the benefit of having learned some valuable strategies for engaging a wide range of learners, I know that strong teaching is the first requirement for meeting the challenges of large, complex classes where they exist. That said, the most important thing is to have true understanding of the needs of each learner and to support those needs in every way we can (interventions, student services support teachers, education assistants, partnerships with parents, liaison with community agencies, good indivdidual education plans, and more).
It should also be noted that relatively few classes are in the range of 30 or more. All K-3 classes are small (none over 24) and the average is in the range of 25-26 for grdes 4-12.
The next few months will be interesting as we engage in dialogue regarding class size and composition during a run-up to a provincial election.
Dr. Elder,
You mentioned in your blog that the average class size for classes between grades 4-12 is 25-26. I do not believe that making an average over such a wide range of grades give an accurate picture of what is happening in the district. The wide range of grades offer 2 different criteria for class sizes.
Grades 4-7 have a maximum class size of 30, unless the teacher gives consent.
Grades 8-12 have a maximum class size of 30 unless the teacher is consulted.
Given that there are different criteria at different levels, it would be more accurate to offer the average class size between the grades of 4-7, and 8-12.
Could you supply your readers with the average class size for grades 8-12?
You also mentioned that there are relatively few classes that are over 30. At the high school level (9-12) how many classes did you report that were over 30 at the Board of Education meeting last Wednesday?
I will check the data on Tuesday and post the averages, but our preliminary analysis showed that both 4-7 and 8-12 have class averages in the range of 25-26.
As for secondary classes over 30, we have 512 classes in our three neighbourhood secondary schools, 54 of which are over 30. 10 of those are specialty classes (such as concert band) where the large class is requested by the teacher. We support or offset those special situations in some way, in this case having a jazz band class of 18 for that teacher.
The other 44 classes are all 31 or 32 except for one PE class of 33. Our principals met with each of the "over 30" teachers and discussed the learning situation, providing support as possible, with examples being additional education assistant time and teacher-on-call support to provide time for marking or report card preparation.
Following up as promised . . .
Saanich averages effective September 30, 2008 (School Act maximum allowable in brackets):
Kindergarten: 17.9 (19)
Grades 1-3: 20.6 (21)
Grades 4-7: 26.7 (28)
Grades 8-12: 25.1 (30)
Is there a location where I can find the highest and lowest actual size in the district per grade?
We will be posting our entire list of classes by school to a Ministry of Education website at the end of October. You will be able to see every class then. In the meantime, I am away from the data for a couple of days but believe the largest classes are one concert band of 46 and a "work experience" type of class of 50 organized for stagecraft in support of musical theatre. The smallest is a primary class of 15 or 16 if memory serves me correctly, although there may be a small number of classes of similar size in highly specialized secondary electives. I will post a link to our posted class-by-class data when our report goes to the web.
It is well past the end of Oct. Could you post the data from each school?
We have submitted the data to the Ministry website, but it some time for them to get everything organized and posted. The direct link to the ministry's "class size and composition" page is http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/enrol/class-size.php. We expect the data for all classes in the province, by school and district, to be posted there by the end of November. On that page you can get a report for each district that includes class size averages, rationales for classes over 30, and the like. You can also get a school level report that tells you, for every class in every school, how many students, in which grades, how many have Individual Education Plans, how many are ESL, and more. Data have been posted since 2005 but, as noted, 2008 is not up yet.
Since the ministry report may be a while in coming, we are also posting our school level data as submitted to the ministry (every class listed) on our district website as a "Latest News" link. That should be up by November 12th.
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