If his school couldn’t exceed the SAGE ratios, Burdick K-8 School Principal Robert Schleck said his school probably would have dumped the program.
“There’s different models that are being used throughout the city,” he said, noting that in some SAGE classrooms, groups of students are pulled into the hallway or other locations during the day to maintain the teacher-to-student ratio.
Particularly in schools with fewer low-income students, which receive less SAGE funding, the state Department of Public Instruction has been willing to allow classrooms to exceed the law’s 15-student cap, although it often requires that they have extra personnel for reading and mathematics.
State DPI data show that at least 40% of SAGE schools employed half-time teachers to meet the program’s requirements in 2004-’05.
Marjorie Passman wrote:
Help me out here. I don’t quite understand your point in quoting Amy Hetzner’s article. Why not include the following web article as well: which concludes: Compared head-to-head against school vouchers, SAGE is far more effective in improving student achievement.
Jim,
Help me out here. I don’t quite understand your point in quoting Amy Hetzner’s article.
Why not include the following web article as well:
http://www.stateaction.org/issues/issue.cfm/issue/SAGE.xml which concludes:
Compared head-to-head against school vouchers, SAGE is far more effective in improving student achievement.
Milwaukee began its voucher program in 1990, and SAGE was enacted in 1995. A multi-year study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison revealed that SAGE students showed improved test scores, while Milwaukee voucher students performed no better than comparable Milwaukee Public Schools students in any year of the program to date.
Reducing classroom size improves the quality of teaching.
Based on a study of teaching practices, reducing class size results in: fewer discipline problems and therefore more instructional time; more individualization of instruction to students; more frequent hands-on activities; and greater teacher satisfaction with their jobs.2
Reducing classroom size in early grades is proven to have significant long-term educational benefits.
The Student/Teacher Ratio (STAR) Project, the most significant long-term study on the benefits of reducing class size in early education, involved more than 3,000 K-3 students in select rural, suburban, urban and inner-city Tennessee schools from 1985-89. This $12 million study revealed that students in small classes consistently scored higher on achievement and basic skills tests. And inner-city, predominantly minority children in small classes outscored their counterparts in larger classes. This success continued through high school.
If you are now coming our in support of additional funding of smaller class sizes because SAGE is so successful, that is wonderful news. Because with proper funding 100% of SAGE schools would meet the program’s requirements in 2007. If you are not, what is your point?