K-3 class sizes swell in large districts as reduction program falters

09-17-2010

Louis Freedberg/California Watch

When school started this year, young children in Fontana crowded into classrooms with as many as 30 students, providing another potent signal that a popular and expensive education reform in California has unraveled. “It was very tough, but we just don't have the money to sustain the program,” said Alejandro Alvarez, director of certificated human resources for Fontana Unified, which had to lay off 70 teachers this year. Fontana is not alone in ending the vaunted class-size reduction program, designed 14 years ago to raise test scores with a seemingly winning formula: quieter, more intimate classes of 20 students in kindergarten through third grade. A new survey by California Watch shows all of the state's largest 30 districts will have classes above 20 students in some or all of K-3 grades this year. (more…)

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K-3 class sizes swell in large districts as reduction program falters

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