Tuesday, November 24, 2015

LOWER CLASS SIZE IS THE LAW THE CITY, STATE & UFT IGNORE

To settle the Campaign for Fiscal Equity Lawsuit where parents successfully claimed in the 1990s that NYC schools were chronically underfunded by the state, the Contract for Excellence was agreed to. Class size limits in this 2007 state legislative settlement for NYC were supposed to average 20 for grades K-3, 22 for grades 3-8 and 25 for 9-12 by 2011.  This is the law.

Before the settlement, lower class sizes were also a goal put in the UFT Contract in Article 8L which says in part: "With regard to the long term recommendations of the 2005 Fact Finders made subject to adequate CFE funding, the parties shall establish a Labor Management Committee to discuss the following issues:...d) a program for the reduction of class size in all grades and divisions."  Absurd parts of Article 8L such as school wide merit pay have managed to come and go since then.

Remember lower class sizes for the city were supposed to be achieved by 2011 according to the law. Why haven't class sizes been lowered anywhere near CFE levels?

The fiscal crisis is long since past as the city and state budget surpluses show. Certainly, paying those paltry raises of 10% over 7 years for teachers and other city workers isn't causing the city to go broke. The main reason class size levels are way too high in my opinion is that our not so brave UFT leaders won't do anything more than give lip service to lowering class size. The Union calls it progress when there are only 5,485 classes over the traditional class size limits that range from 32-34 in grades 1-12.  My daughter's grade one class has 28.  This is outrageous.  Kids get very little individual attention in these huge classes.

The reality of life in 21st Century America is that laws are for "little people" like teachers and public school students in the city.  Teachers must be evaluated using ridiculous cookie cutter Danielson rubrics and invalid/unreliable student test scores.  If we object, the law is thrown in our faces by the UFT. Our students must sit in large classes because when it comes to lower class sizes, leaders like Dennis Walcott, Joel Klein and Carmen Farina can just take the law and ignore it.  And what does our union do? Ask us for more COPE money so public schools can continue to be mistreated by the politicians.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a PE teacher, I can personally attest to the fact there there are TONS of PE classes over the contractual size limit. I will bet my last dollar that the UFT does not include oversize PE classes in the total number of oversizes classes citywide.

Anonymous said...

Union makes deals to let oversize classes all the time.

Anonymous said...

The school I'm in this week has between 35- 40 kids in every class. Bloomberg said it didn't matter how many kids are in a class. Nothing has changed. This joint has restorative justice with no deans. So all the assholes in the halls come in and won't leave. I had at least 60 in the room, sticking their phones down their pants and snapping pictures of their Thanksgiving turkeys. Extremely small room and my ears are still ringing. I felt like I was at a Pink Floyd concert without the drugs. A kid in the back of the room was selling something and boy did I want something. I called the AP and he looked in, then looked at me with disgust, turned on his heel and left. I put tissue in my ears and started joking around with the kids. I had a great time. What's the point of getting all stressed out?

Anonymous said...

Hey, there's one guaranteed way to improve student learning. Lower class sizes. It's that simple yet nobody actually does it because the goal is not to improve education. The goal is to destroy and privatize. If Gates and the Waltons really want to make a difference then just put your billions into lowering class sizes. Nahhh, that makes too much sense.

Judith Katz said...

An historical, NYC fact is, that the last time that the UFT actually negotiated lowering class sizes was in the 1967 contract. As a retired high school music teacher, I can safely say, that music classes will still be jammed with at least 50 students, no matter if it is a general music class, or a performance class. This is the same ratio as say a gym class of 50 students to one teacher. However, a high school hygiene class is contractually capped at 34. Provisions were made a long time ago for physical education departments.

However, these numbers in the last few years have risen sharply. If it is pressure put on newbie teachers to "take just a few more", or people afraid to saying anything about oversized classes, in general, there should be more of an out cry against jamming kids into classes.

James Eterno said...

I agree totally.