Despite the apparent endorsement of the importance of low class sizes in this report from Duluth, the general consensus now places much more importance on teacher quality and the methods selected for teaching. Moreover, we are dealing here with the notion that “early” means First Grade. As a descriptor I would prefer to retain it for referring to 3 and 4 year olds. These Wisconsin students have not only entered First Grade, they have also already been identified as “at risk”. But having entered all these caveats, it remains the case that students given more direct attention at the beginning of their school careers do better than they would have done otherwise, and they retain the advantage in subsequent years. GS
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/6952391.htm
Posted on Tue, Oct.
07, 2003
Early boost improves students
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
EDUCATION: A program to increase achievement among low-income pupils is a success, a study finds.
Students
taking part in
Students in S.A.G.E., an
acronym for Student Achievement Guarantee in Education, finished first grade
almost a third of a year ahead of non-S.A.G.E. students, a recently released
study found.
The state-funded program
tries to increase the academic achievement of low-income children in grades
K-3, in part by reducing
student-teacher ratios to no more than 15-to-1.
"It's been a huge gift
to children across
"Anecdotally, it's
made a world of difference in regular school life," she said.
"Teachers are able to get to every child every day. And that's a huge
advantage."
This year, the state will
spend $95 million to support the program in 530 of the state's 1,100 elementary
schools. More than half of the state's 426 public school districts have
S.A.G.E. in at least one school.
To help determine if
Researchers conducted a
five-year study, comparing students' performance in 30 S.A.G.E. schools against
those of students in 14 to 17 non-S.A.G.E. schools in the same school
districts.
The foremost finding was
that first-grade S.A.G.E.
students placed 25 to 30 percent of a year higher on curves of expected average
growth of student achievement than did non-S.A.G.E. students.
"It's a reaffirmation
of how strong the achievement gains that are produced by the program,"
Education Policy Studies Laboratory director Alex Molnar said of the growth.
After first grade, however, S.A.G.E. students remained about
the same academic distance ahead of non-S.A.G.E. students in reading and math.
While that might argue that S.A.G.E. is most effective in first grade, Molnar
said it actually indicates another aspect of S.A.G.E.'s
effectiveness. In traditional, non-S.A.G.E. classrooms, low-income and minority
students typically fall further behind other students.
"It would appear that
S.A.G.E. prevents that from happening," Molnar said. "The ability not
to fall behind is in itself stunning."
And S.A.G.E. students who
missed a lot of school still learned as much as non-S.A.G.E. students who
missed little, the study found.
"We're pleased with
the results of the study," said assistant state superintendent of public
instruction Tony Evers. "Both the anecdotal data and the research data
thus far has been very supportive of the investment the state of
The research project is
just one way
Over the past six years, the number of Cooper Elementary
fourth-graders who meet state reading standards went from 56 to 98 percent, Korsch said.
It's likely that not all of
that improvement can be credited to S.A.G.E., said
S.A.G.E., however, is
beneficial, she said.
"Combine good, skilled
development for teachers with low class sizes and it's amazing what can happen
for young people," Smith said.
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STEVE KUCHERA can be reached at (218) 279-5503, toll free at (800)
456-8282, or by e-mail at skuchera@duluthnews.com.