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TESTIMONY

Michael Ransom, Representative of Class Size Matters, on Troubling Discrepancies in Class Size Compliance Across NYC Schools

3:05:14

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Michael Ransom addresses the City Council on the disparities in class size compliance, particularly in high-need schools, and suggests several unheeded recommendations to address these issues.

Details data showing lowest compliance with class size caps in high-need schools, contrasting with Department of Education's positive spin.
Only 46 out of 1500 citywide schools fully comply with class size caps, none of which are high-need schools.
Highlights unadopted recommendations from a Class Size Working Group report, including stopping school co-locations without impact analysis and adjusting enrollment for smaller classes.
Criticizes the Department of Education's budget cuts and lack of transparency in school construction and funding allocation.
Advocates for strengthening the teacher pipeline, incentivizing teachers to work in high-need schools, and adding a separate budget line for class size reduction.

Michael Ransom

3:05:14

My name is Michael Ransom.

3:05:15

I'm here class size matters.

3:05:16

I'm Lainie Hameson.

3:05:18

Lainie got to a lot of the good background here, but I'm just gonna add some data to what she's saying.

3:05:24

As Laney said, actually, the highest need schools according to this calculation that the state actually came up with the highest need schools are actually having some of the lowest compliance relative to other schools.

3:05:37

So we actually in our analysis broke down all these schools by quartiles.

3:05:40

Just some quarters, and the quarter of schools with the highest need actually only complied roughly 27% of the time.

3:05:49

And the DOE said earlier that citywide compliance is around 39%.

3:05:55

And next year compliance must be around 40%.

3:05:58

But we actually know that even 2 years ago, compliance was at above 42%.

3:06:03

So the trend there is just decreasing as well even though DOE is trying to spin it as something positive.

3:06:09

That's occurring clearly not the case.

3:06:12

AND WHEN WE LOOKED AT THESE SCHOOLS AND WHETHER OR NOT THEY'RE COMPLYING WITH ALL OF THEIR CLASSES OUT OF 1500 SCHOOLS CITYWIDE.

3:06:19

ONLY 46 schools fully complied with the caps.

3:06:22

I mean, that's a ministule percentage of the class.

3:06:24

The school is actually fully complying with the caps.

Leonie Haimson

3:06:27

And most all of them were the highest needs schools.

3:06:30

Yes.

3:06:30

I mean, the lowest schools.

3:06:31

The lowest needs schools.

Michael Ransom

3:06:32

Not a single one of the highest needs schools in that quartile fully complied with the caps.

3:06:38

And so this is the trend line that we're seeing everywhere.

3:06:40

And, yeah, to sort of piggyback on what Wayne was saying about the class size working group.

3:06:45

I mean, these are some of the things that were recommended in the report released in December.

3:06:51

Stop collating schools without any analysis to the educational impact statements.

3:06:57

Adjusting enrollment and nearby schools that have the same grade levels to better ensure that all schools have enough space for smaller classes.

3:07:04

That's sell rate in building more schools and overcrowded communities, including Annette's and acquiring empty parochorial and charter school buildings.

3:07:13

Strengthening the teacher pipeline has been talked about throughout this entire session, providing incentives to teachers to work, especially in the highest need schools.

3:07:20

And then also considering adding a separate budget line for class size reduction and keeping the fair student funding allocation for their critical school and classroom needs.

3:07:29

Again, none of these have been accepted as of yet by the DOE and said they're doing all the opposite of these.

3:07:35

They continue to co locate schools.

3:07:38

Without any analysis of whether this will prevent existing schools from being able to lower class size.

3:07:43

They're preparing slash the DOE budget by over $700,000,000 each year for the next 4 years, and they're cutting new funding for new school construction in half and enough that new school construction and the new seats in the capital plan, 77% of those seats are not cited whatsoever to school, to district, to burrow.

3:08:04

And so that the lack of transparency there as Lenny was mentioning before is deeply, deeply concerning.

3:08:10

And I yield my time.

3:08:11

Thank you.

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Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, on DOE's Policies on Class Sizes and Lack of Transparency

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Navid Hassan on Proposals and Impacts of Reducing Class Sizes in NYC Public Schools