The finding comes from a report prepared at Crowley’s…
By Dustin Brown
More than 19 of every 20 elementary school students in Queens are taught in classes that exceed optimal class size, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) told a news conference last week.
The finding comes from a report prepared at Crowley’s request by the congressional Committee on Government Reform, which studied class sizes from kindergarten through third grade at Queens schools during the 1999-2000 school year.
The report reveals that only 4 percent of K-3 students are taught in classes of 18 or less, while over half are taught in “especially large” classes of 25 or more students.
Reducing class size to an average of 18 students nationwide has been a federal goal since former President Clinton introduced the subject in his 1998 State of the Union address.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, research overwhelmingly shows that benefits of small class size in the early grades can still be felt years later. Students who spend K-3 in small classes are a year ahead of their peers in academic performance by the time they reach eighth grade, it said.
Problems were numerous but solutions few in Crowley’s comments, which stressed that class size will only be reduced through a combination of local creativity and federal support. He made his announcement in the library of PS 112 in Long Island City, where a poster hanging from the podium — depicting two students orbiting the earth in a space-age classroom — offered an unintended reminder of just how far school districts may have to turn as they respond to overcrowding.
“In School District 24, they’re having trouble finding space to build. School construction needs to get more innovative,” Crowley said. “We’re all going to look at this and know it’s not going to be the way it used to be.”
Crowley challenged Congress and the Bush administration to make a federal commitment to alleviating school overcrowding nationwide. To that end, the congressman expressed strong support for the School Reconstruction and Modernization Act, a bill U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) and U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) are expected to reintroduce to Congress in upcoming weeks.
The legislation would enable school boards to finance school construction by issuing interest-free bonds, thus making expansion projects more feasible and economical .
“It has been difficult to convey to my colleagues how severe this problem is in Queens,” Crowley said. “Pictures don’t do it. It’s unbelievable when you show pictures of children in what used to be a janitor’s closet or a gymnasium — it blows the mind.”
Such pictures were available in abundance at PS 112, where spaces are constantly reinvented to adapt them to the school's needs.
“We have no more space,” Principal Gloria Stradford said. “Every nook and cranny of this school is used for instructional purposes.”
Speech therapy is taught in a plumbing closet. ESL classes are held in the cafeteria before students raid it at lunchtime. Even the gym showers have been converted to classroom space, accessible only through two stairways leading up from the gymnasium.
“I would like to see more classroom space,” said Vice Principal Stephanie Koller. “I think it’s wrong that we have teachers teaching out of closets and in the cafeteria.”
Although Koller said overcrowding at PS 112 is comparable to that at other schools, “the problem is much more difficult” because 75 of their 760 students are special education students — many of whom have difficulty getting around. Hallways are lined with wheelchairs because classrooms have no floor space in which to set them.
In room 109B, 12 students — most sitting in cumbersome equipment — are joined by eight paraprofessionals and one teacher, leaving hardly any space to move.
Until a comprehensive long-term solution is formulated, the schools are taking relief where they can get it. School officials may ease overcrowding at PS 112 by convincing the Parks Department to allow transportable classrooms be placed in the Dutch Kills Playground adjacent to the school.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
