Date: Fri 16-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-education-class-size

Full Text:

Ed Ink: Education: Good, Better, Best

A national study released last week put Connecticut schools near the top of

the national class, which is good news. The study published by Education Week

on January 8 also showed a large gap in quality and performance between urban

and suburban schools in the state, particularly in the areas of reading, math,

and science. This is not so good, but it hardly comes as news to a state that

has been embroiled for years in a legal and political struggle over

educational disparities between city and town. Opportunity chases wealth not

poverty, and the chase long ago crossed the city limits.

The celebrated Sheff vs O'Neill case led the legislature and governor to enact

some modest measures, such as pre-school subsidies and incentives for magnet

schools, but these measures have been slow to take effect. The inequities

persist, and so does the debate in Hartford.

As much as we would like to solve all the state's educational problems, the

best we can do as a town is to secure that small piece of the state's

educational puzzle for which we are responsible. So far, we have done a pretty

good job in that respect. How much good will become a little clearer once the

latest Connecticut Mastery Test scores are released and analyzed at the end of

this week. It is expected, however, that local students will make a good

showing, as usual. Newtown has, by most measures, a good school system.

Ours is a hopeful community, however, and our inclination has always been to

do better. To that end, Newtown has spent millions of dollars in the past

couple of years upgrading our school facilities. The $30-million expansion and

renovation at Newtown High School is nearly complete, and already

administrators are preparing a budget to follow up the bricks and mortar with

a major technology upgrade.

No matter how much money we spend on educational facilities and tools, their

full value is only realized in the methods of education. Through group

training and individual dedication, Newtown's educators have worked to make

the most of what they have.

Now the Board of Education has learned from the results of a study conducted

in Tennessee of children in kindergarten through third grade that the best

learning environment for these grades is a class of 13 to 17 students. Classes

in the early grades of Newtown's schools are typically more than 22-24

students, and the pressure is on to raise the size of classes, not lower them.

Projections show that by the 2000-2001 school year, the middle school will

need more classrooms, and soon after that, the elementary schools will be

filled to capacity, notwithstanding the recent expansion of Hawley School. To

provide the best learning environment for our youngest students by cutting

class sizes would only accelerate and exacerbate the space problems.

The best possible school system always seems to be a little out of reach.

There are limits to what a community can afford. Simply maintaining the status

quo is going to cost the town more millions in the very near future. (The

Board of Education has already put $1,125,000 in its capital plan for the

purchase of a site for a new school.) At some point we have to ask ourselves:

Is it fair to students to send them home from the perfect school to a house

that is crumbling under its tax burden?

It is never a bad idea, however, to work for the best, to set perfection as a

goal, and to actually consider the possibility of getting there. We should

never ridicule educators for asking for better facilities, better books, and

smaller classes. Their requests may be impractical, but they are only striving

for the best. It is a good quality to see in the people hired in our service.

Our educational ideals may always be doomed to compromise given the realities

of municipal finance, but it is essential that we have ideals in the first

place.