Portables part of school landscape; Class-size cap
coming
Hamilton Spectator
Fri 08 Sep 2006

Page: A3
Section: Local
Byline: Rob Faulkner
Source: The
Hamilton Spectator

Portables will be part of the equation as Hamilton school
boards try to reach the province's class-size cap next year.

Boards will face a space crunch as they try to limit junior kindergarten to
Grade 3 classes to just 20 students, in 90 per cent of cases by 2007-08.

At Central Public School yesterday, Education Minister Sandra Pupatello,
echoing old news, told a crowd of educators Ontario has hired 2,000 teachers
this year.

But even that has only managed to inch upward the number of primary classes
with 20 or fewer students in local boards.

Ontario-wide compliance is at 48 per cent under the 20-student cap in primary
classes.

This fall, 57 per cent of the 695 primary classes are under the cap in the
public school board.

In the Catholic board it's 62 per cent of its 463 classes.

That's after hiring 95 and 58 teachers respectively -- which still means
plenty of new staff and new space if they are to hit 90 per cent next year.

"We're going to be hiring a lot of teachers to get there," said Ken Bain, a
public board superintendent. He didn't know how many it will take.

But getting there will also put pressure on existing schools: if you shrink
classes, and enrolment is stable, you need more space. Enrolment is falling
locally, but it still raises the portables issue.

So far the public board has put its new primary teachers in schools that had
space, so it didn't have to buy new portables this fall, Bain said.

They did move portables around, however.

At Central Public School behind City Hall, which in 1853 became the first
multigrade elementary school in Upper Canada, they've seen the impact.

With rising enrolment and the new primary class-size caps, the school gained
2.5 teachers in the past two years. It also has two portables this year.

"Certainly there's growth in the community, and the primary class sizes,"
said principal Rene Contant, whose diverse school of about 260 kids can no
longer use an empty portable for music and drama.

In the Catholic board, superintendent Pat Amos said her board awaits details
on capital funding, which will let it expand newly created classes into
additions or portables.

"Right now we don't have the physical space to accommodate many more
classes," she said.

These details, which she expects next month, will let the board plan to buy
portables, lease portables or build additions before the hard cap in 2007-08.

"There's going to be a need for portables across the province," said Amos,
noting her board tries to keep primary kids and Grade 7 and Grade 8 students out
of the makeshift classrooms.

She said that, because enrolment is falling in Hamilton, her board will seek
affordable ways to add space, knowing that space will be freed up as fewer kids
arrive in the years ahead.

Class size studies

Reducing class sizes is an initiative strongly supported by parents, teachers
and much academic research. Here is a taste of the findings:

* Called the "gold standard" in the field, Tennessee's STAR Project found
that kids in small classes (13 to 17 pupils) did better on standardized tests
than students in classes of 22 to 25.

* But critics in years since this 1980s study claim the benefits vanish after
kids leave the smaller classes for big ones. They say data's sketchier for kids
in higher grades.

* One theory on class-size reduction is that it helps the youngest kids
socialize and learn classroom routine. So it has less effect on higher grades
where kids know this already, reports the C.D. Howe Institute.

* A 2003 study found that a Wisconsin small-class initiative using a 15:1
teacher-student ratio for low-income primary kids narrowed the achievement gap
between African-American students and their white peers.

* See Ontario, board and school data on class sizes at:
ontario.ca/classsizes.

[email-masked]

905-526-2468

© 2006 Torstar Corporation

Illustration:
• Photo: Barry Gray, the Hamilton
Spectator / Central Public School teacher Sarah Moat with Grade 1 students
Zhevaize Simon and Alexis Patrick. The school struggles with rising
enrolment.

Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 649
words