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A $6 billion dollar statewide effort to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade may not be having any effect on student achievement, according to a report issued Monday by the Class Size Reduction Research Consortium. 

But local educators say the state’s five-year-old class-size reduction program is worthwhile because it has increased individualized attention for students. 

According to the consortium, led by RAND of Santa Monica and American Institutes of Research of Palo Alto, 97 percent of California’s K-3 classrooms have used state money to reduce their class size from a statewide average of 28 to a maximum of 20. Still, the report found that students who have had exposure to reduced class sizes during the life of the program fared no better on standardized tests than older students, who had little or no exposure to smaller classes. 

But George Bohrnstedt, senior vice president for research at American Institutes, warned that it is difficult to get an accurate measure for the reduction’s impact, since the state launched so many other initiatives around the same time. 

Shirley Issel, Board of Education president, said the same applies at the local level.  

“It would be virtually impossible to tease out the effects of class size on achievement,” she said, noting that the district launched an early literacy initiative, among other programs, when the state dollars for class size reduction arrived in Berkeley.  

But, if the report found no link between class size reduction and test scores, it did find that teachers in reduced-size classrooms were able to provide more individualized attention for students, better assessment of individual students’ needs, and in some cases, better behavioral outcomes, than did teachers in non-reduced classrooms. 

Teachers and principals in Berkeley focused on similar benefits.  

“The biggest thing is the amount of attention you can give to each child,” said Jeannie Wang, a kindergarten teacher at Emerson School. 

Wang added that with only 20 students, she can better delineate the low-, middle- and high-achieving kids, and provide each with appropriate, individualized attention. 

“Not only does it help academically,” added Nancy D. Waters, principal at John Muir School, “but with today’s behavioral problems, it helps teachers manage a class.” 

Rebecca Chung, principal at Emerson, said class size is only one of many factors that impact test scores, and suggested that some of the side effects of the class size reduction legislation may have actually had a negative impact on test scores. 

For instance, when the program took effect, Chung noted, school districts statewide had to hire inexperienced teachers to meet class size goals. 

The consortium report found that the number of teachers in California schools without full credentials, after rising steadily for several years, has leveled off. 

In the 1996-1997 school year, 4 percent of kindergarten through third grade teachers statewide did not have full credentials, according to the report. By the 1998-99 school year, that number had climbed to 13.4 percent, and in 1999-2000, the total was 13.9 percent. Last year, the figure dipped to 13.3 percent. 

Berkeley figures for kindergarten through third grade were unavailable yesterday, but district-wide figures, including all grades, mirror the state trend at the K-3 level. 

According to the consortium’s study, two-thirds of districts statewide reported that state funding was insufficient to meet class size reduction goals, and many had to cut from other programs, including arts and athletics, in order to meet those goals. 

Berkeley has been able to attain the twenty to one teacher to student ratios, without making cuts elsewhere, by virtue of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project, a special local tax in place since 1987 that commits 60 percent of revenue to class size reduction, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. 

But Jerry Kurr, associate superintendent of business said that, with the district in a financial crisis, and teacher layoffs a possibility, it may be difficult to maintain current class sizes. 

Contact reporter David Scharfenberg at scharfenberg@berkeleydailyplanet.net.