Class-Size Reduction Holds Enormous Promise

By Marian Bergeson

Class-size reduction (CSR) has been the topic du jour in education for the last year.

That's because it's a program that holds enormous promise - when combined with other key reforms, like restoring phonics-based reading instruction - for improving student achievement levels.

I emphasize: CSR is a tool, not the final goal. It's a tool to improve opportunities for students to learn basic skills - the "gateway skills of reading and mathematics," as Governor Pete Wilson has termed them - they'll need to succeed in school and life.

I've witnessed the incredible efforts and can-do spirit of educators who have worked hard to make this happen, because they know what a difference it can make.

Yet, criticism exists because there is no test to measure its success. That to me is quibbling on the margins, because it is clearly too early to demand such a measure.

We should judge at this time on enthusiasm and participation.

Consider: 95 percent of districts are participating. In just about one year's time, districts have succeeded in reducing 97 percent of first-grade classes and 57 percent of second-grade classes to 20 students or less.

Moreover, the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.

Just ask a primary grade teacher what they think about CSR. Just ask parents who are seeing the positive results of more teacher time being spent instructing their children.

Parents have been so thrilled that some have banded together to demand action from foot- dragging districts. That's the kind of grassroots mandate I love to see.

And a teacher in Elk Grove (Sacramento County) told me that she had never ended a school year with all of her students reading at grade level. However, thanks to CSR, about halfway through the school year all of her students were at grade level and headed higher.

I've heard the same story many times as I've traveled throughout California. And the governor wants to build on this enthusiasm and momentum, so that every California public school student in kindergarten, first, second and third grades can benefit from smaller classes. To do that, he is sponsoring legislation (AB 850, Pacheco) to expand the governor's enormously successful CSR program into a fourth grade.

I have also just completed, at the governor's direction, task force meetings with educators throughout California on their experiences implementing CSR. We did this to find out first-hand what the successes and difficulties are, in preparation for taking the "next steps" in the CSR program.

Our goal is to set every student on a course to lifelong learning by ensuring that they know early on how to read and do basic math at or above grade level.

I'm confident that, with CSR and the governor's other reforms finally in place, we can do that in just a few short years.

Considering that we waited a decade for the failure of "whole language" and the demise of student reading skills to the worst in the nation, that's not much to ask.