Reorganization plan calls for higher student-teacher ratios

By Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer  |  February 4, 2007

PORTLAND, Maine --Gov. John Baldacci's school reorganization plan calls for less state funding for teacher salaries and higher student-teacher ratios in the classrooms.

While much of the attention has focused on reducing the number of school districts and slashing administrative costs, the governor also wants to change the formula the state uses to determine how much it pays to local school districts for teacher salaries.

The resulting spending cuts would be the equivalent of 650 teacher positions, something that's sure to meet resistance from teachers and parent groups.

"When the governor starts saying there's going to be more cuts, I can't fathom it," said Liz Holton, who has children in the second, fifth and eighth grades in Portland schools. "He needs solutions to make the schools better -- not take things away."

Supporters of Baldacci's plan say reducing the number of teachers and raising Maine's student-teacher ratio won't hurt student achievement.

Maine's student-teacher ratio -- roughly 12-to-1 in 2005 -- is the third-lowest in the country, behind Vermont and Rhode Island, according to the National Education Association. The NEA says the national average is about 16-to-1.

The issue, backers say, is how to get the biggest bang for the state's education dollars. In the case of teacher salaries, Baldacci wants to reallocate the money to expand the state's laptop computer program to all high school students, and to create a college scholarship fund for more than 15,000 needy students over four years.

"It's a part of the choices we think will enhance learning," Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said. "We think this is a smart move."

Baldacci's plan to consolidate Maine's school system, dubbed "Local Schools, Regional Support," is one of more than half a dozen school reorganization plans that have been submitted to the Legislature. All of them will be considered at a daylong public hearing Monday at the Augusta Civic Center before the Education Committee.

Of all the plans, the governor's has drawn the most attention with its promises of $241 million in savings over three years beginning July 2008.

Much has been made of the part of the plan that would reduce the number of school administrative offices from 152 to 26 regional school districts. But the idea of reducing the number of teachers is beginning to draw notice, as well.

Maine's current allocation formula uses a student-teacher ratio of 17-to-1 for elementary schools, 16-to-1 for middle schools and 15-to-1 for high schools. Under Baldacci's proposal, the formula would be changed to a single student-teacher ratio of 17-to-1 for all school levels.

That may not sound like much, but the result would be funding for 650 fewer teacher positions, at a savings of $25 million to the state and $25 million to local districts over two years, according to the state Department of Education.

The cuts are not expected to hurt student performance, Gendron said. Research shows that small classes from kindergarten through grade 3 are beneficial, but there's no evidence that small classes change student achievement beyond that, she said.

The revised formula takes into account a trend toward a falling student-teacher ratio in Maine and across the nation. One reason for the decline is that Maine's student enrollment is falling -- at the rate of 2,500-3,000 students a year.

But the change in formula would be a hard sell politically, said Ron Bancroft, a founding member of the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education.

By and large, Bancroft agrees that the student-teacher ratios in Maine are too low. But he also knows that teacher cuts and class size are the types of issues that can draw people to school board meetings.

"That's the kind of thing that packs meetings and intimidates school boards," said Bancroft, a former school board member from Cumberland. "I'm pretty fearless -- until you confront me with a room full of parents."

The proposal has teachers concerned for their jobs, said Chris Galgay, president of the Maine Education Association.

Galgay, for one, doesn't buy the argument that having larger classrooms won't have any effect on classroom learning.

"The only research I need is my personal research, which says when you increase class size it affects instruction," said Galgay, who was a public school teacher for 15 years. "It's hard to find somebody advocating for higher class size."

While Baldacci's plan would reduce state funding for teacher positions, it doesn't mandate teacher cuts or larger class sizes, state officials say. Schools would have the option of spending more money on the local level to maintain the status quo.

Furthermore, they add, the impact isn't likely to be catastrophic. For example, the formula change would result in just one less teacher at a middle school with 300 students, they say.

That's not much consolation for Erla Coburn of Durham, a parent of a third-grader and president of the local PTA.

One reason Coburn moved from New York City to Maine six years ago was for the smaller classes and local control she got in Durham. She's not so sure children will benefit by consolidating school districts into megadistricts and cutting teacher spending.

"There's no better investment, in my mind, than in our children," she said.

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On the Net:

Maine Department of Education: http://www.maine.gov/education/ 

Small classrooms most important in early grades

By Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer  |  February 4, 2007

PORTLAND, Maine --Research shows that small classrooms are beneficial during a child's earliest school years.

But there is little evidence that shows a correlation between class size and student achievement beyond the third grade, education researchers say.

The issue is coming up with Gov. John Baldacci's sweeping reorganization plan for Maine's school system. One of the plan's proposals calls for less state funding for teacher salaries, resulting in higher student-teacher ratios in grades 6 through 12.

Nationally, a class-size reduction experiment in Tennessee in the 1980s showed that small class sizes for the early grades boosted student achievement through high school and beyond. The Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio study compared the performance of pupils in classes of 13 to 17 pupils to classes of 22 to 25 from kindergarten through third grade.

"Students who started in small classes in kindergarten and stayed in small classes through at least grade 3 were about a year and a half ahead of their peers (in the larger classes) by the time they graduated high school," said Charles Achilles, a Seton Hall University professor and one of the study's principal investigators.

Deciding where to spend limited education resources can be tricky, said Brian Stecher, a senior social scientist at the nonprofit Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif.

There aren't any studies comparing the benefits of a dollar spent on teachers to a dollar spent on computers or a dollar spent on scholarships.

Still, nobody wants to see their children's classrooms get bigger, he said.

"Parents and teachers are almost universally in support of reducing class size if possible," he said.

In Maine, a recent analysis compares the results of Maine Educational Assessments tests in different school districts.

The results show virtually no difference in the student-teacher ratios between high- and low-performing schools, said David Silvernail, director of the University of Southern Maine's Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation.

"The ratios aren't driving performance," Silvernail said.

Maine will continue to have small classroom sizes even if the allocation funding formula is changed.

"Seventeen-to-one is still considered a very good class size nationally," said Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.