SHORTCHANGING OUR SCHOOLS
BY ANNE BRIDGMAN
Overcrowding in Classrooms
PART 2: CHALLENGES TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
N
atalie Pellitier has 62 students in her advanced calculus class. When the year
started at South Eugene High School, she and her fellow students made a
point to arrive very early for the class: “It was basically a war for seats on the
day we got to pick.”
Pellitier’s physics class is smaller — at 43. “Larger class sizes mean less
student-teacher interactions,” Pellitier says. Tactile/visual learners have more
diffi culty understanding physics concepts when there are fewer labs due to crowding,
she says. There are more lectures and less group work.
“For me, the class is less exciting and I have to work harder to understand concepts,”
says Pellitier, who hastens to add that she fi nds her teachers top-notch. Nonetheless,
she says, “I miss the opportunity to learn from my peers and hear things explained in
different ways.”
Classes at South average in the 30s, with lower-level math and language arts classes
in the 20s and higher-level classes in those subjects in the 40s. Some — like Pellitier’s
calculus class — are much larger.
Jerry Henderson, former principal at South Eugene High School, was one of several
retired administrators asked by Superintendent Sheldon Berman last spring to go back
to school to observe conditions today versus when they worked there. When asked what
he saw, he cites “huge” class sizes. “I thought they were huge when I was there” in 2002
and there were advanced math classes with 30 students, he says. “Close to 40 in a class,
we thought was ridiculous, and now they’re close to 60. … That’s criminal.”
Nonetheless, he says, kids who are bright and have resources will be able to handle
large class sizes, and they’ll learn, though probably not at the same depth. “The issues are
with the kids who really need the support and help,” Henderson says. As for differentiating
in large classes, Henderson says you can do it, but “you can’t do it as well.”
Karina Wolf, a senior at North Eugene High School, has classes in the mid- to upper
30s. “This makes it diffi cult to get through material,” she says, “and things get rushed
at the end, making grasping concepts diffi cult.” It’s also diffi cult trying to compete for
help with more than 30 other kids, she says.
Larger classes affect teachers as well as students. Scott Zarnegar, a science teacher
who has taught at South for fi ve years, says a lot of teachers are changing the way they
give assignments. “I’m moving into more completion-type work and more Scantron
work,” he says, assignments in which the students fi ll in bubbles, the teacher takes the
papers to a machine, and a scanner reads the answers.
Moreover, Zarnegar says crowded classes have “a pretty massive effect on every
teacher and every student,” citing the loss of relationships. “A lot of people don’t realize
just how much you can motivate your students when you know them personally. When
you have 40 kids in your class or 35, there’s just no time to get to know everyone, so
what you see is that there’s a disconnect between the teacher and the students.”
Oregon’s Chief Education Offi cer Rudy Crew spoke to that issue at the Portland City
Club last month when he said “the quality of that relationship is what your tax dollars are
paying for,” according to a report by Oregon Live. Instructors have to be able to engage
their students, he said and “a teacher can’t do that with a huge number of students.”
Teachers’ class load is also affected, according to Randy Bernstein, principal at
South. Larger class sizes make it more diffi cult for teachers to individualize, get through
all the material, and answer all students’ questions, he says. Adding just fi ve students
to each of fi ve classes boosts a teacher’s workload by 25 kids, he points out, which
translates into 25 more exams, papers and homework assignments to grade.
“Most of our teachers now are carrying loads of over 150 students and many of them
are approaching 150 to 200 students,” Bernstein says. “It really does dilute a teacher’s
ability to be responsive when they’ve got that many more students to provide feedback
and support for.”
Bernstein says teachers are professionals who really care, but the class size situation,
coming on top of other funding cuts, has made them “feel as stretched as they do and
feel that it’s that much more diffi cult to do their job well … They want to be able to do
their job better than the hand that they’ve been dealt.”
4J has taken several approaches to large classes at the high school level.
This year, staff were added back at Churchill High School because enrollment there
rose considerably for the fi rst time in years, according to Kerry Delf, the district’s
communications coordinator.
Changing to the 3x5 trimester schedule (Churchill changed to a common schedule
this year; the other three high schools will make the change next year) is expected to
decrease average class size 6 to 11 percent, with classes averaging about 30 students,
according to 4J’s website.
In addition, high school teachers are using instructional
technology to help differentiate and provide more time
on task, trying to make large-group instruction more
engaging, and mining information from tests to
facilitate learning.
Henderson says approaches like these that
target how classes are taught are useful, but adds,
“you can only take that so far.” Ultimately, he
says, decisions about class size are “part of the
bigger picture — a question of our values.”
Bernstein agrees: “I’ve heard people say
that communities are only as healthy as
our schools. If we’re shortchanging our
schools, then our communities won’t
be as healthy. I hope people can
make that connection.” ■
Anne Bridgman is a freelance writer and edi-
tor and an advocate for public schools and
children in poverty. She lives with her husband
and daughter in Eugene. To share ideas or sto-
ries about how the budget cuts in Eugene have
affected your school or child, email Anne at
shortchangingourschools@gmail.com.
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November 15, 2012 • eugeneweekly.com