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Story and photos by Joyce Riha Linik

To boost student success for the long term, an urban district concentrates money and energy on helping first-graders. Moral of the story? One small size fits all.

TACOMA, Washington—
It has been referred to as Seattle's ugly stepsister, taken potshots for being a gritty, blue-collar second best. But while Tacoma may not be adorned with as many multifaceted glass high rises or its sister city's crown jewel, the Space Needle, Tacoma just may turn out to be a Cinderella story after all.

Recent years have brought a renaissance to Tacoma's historic downtown, built at the turn of the 20th century when the transcontinental railroad broke through the Cascade Mountains and rolled to a stop near Puget Sound. Impressive buildings, including the grand copper-domed Union Station and the old Florentine city hall with its enchanting bell tower clock, have been given facelifts. The city has contributed $5.2 million to build a new fine arts museum, and an International Glass Museum, featuring a 550-foot "bridge of glass," is scheduled to open in 2002. Even the once-industrial waterfront is being cleaned up; the old smelter and its piece of polluted beach are being trucked away bit by bit as cafés, bistros, and parks take hold along Commencement Bay. To connect these points of interest with the rest of the city, a new light-rail system and bicycle paths are under construction.

As a result of changes like these and the area's natural appeal (Mount Rainier and its forested inclines on one hand, the Sound's lapping outlet to the Pacific on the other), businesses are flocking to the area—among them such notables as Intel and Boeing. And as the education level of Tacoma's adult population increases, so does the commitment to improving education for its children. Case in point: a local program called Great Start, aimed at improving outcomes for some of Tacoma's youngest residents.

An Invitation to the Ball
When the Tacoma School District received a $1.06 million federal grant last year to reduce class sizes, it took a novel approach to allocating the money. It could have spread the funds throughout all classrooms in Washington's third-largest school district. Instead, the district decided to concentrate the money where it could make the most impact.

Determining how this would be done "was a collaborative effort between the district, teachers, and the teachers' association," says Lynne Rosellini, Director of Elementary Education. "We sat down together and looked at what's been done and what works best." In short, she says, "We went to the research."

Recent studies have shown that smaller class sizes have the most positive effect when classes are cut to 15 or 16 students per teacher, and that the biggest gains are seen in the youngest children. (See class-size research.) Because gains in the early years can increase a student's performance exponentially throughout the rest of the schooling years, Tacoma staff decided to focus their efforts on the first-grade level. They dubbed the program "Great Start" and appointed Rosellini as program director.

"We'd been talking about class size for quite a while," Rosellini says, "but we just didn't have a vehicle to make it happen." Now, they're hoping that the grant will plow the way for even bigger vehicles to follow, such as funding to expand the program to all first-grade classrooms and other grades.

The lid was set at 16 students per class, representing a drastic change for Tacoma. Recent reports indicate that Washington's student-teacher ratio is one of the worst in the country at 20 to one, and this figure includes such specialists as music instructors and special education staff who interact with students only intermittently. Average class sizes are even larger. The current classroom capacity, as per Tacoma teacher contracts, is 27 students.

"Federal dollars allowed us to hire 20 additional teachers placed at 12 different schools," Rosellini reports. "It allowed us to create 56 classes of 16 or less, and we were able to serve about 850 first-graders through the program in the first year."

The 12 schools were chosen from 37 elementary schools in the district, including an equal mix of low-, mid-, and high-performing schools to determine the effects of class size on differing populations.

But reducing class size is not enough. Because research also indicates that well-trained teachers are a key component to students achieving success, Rosellini says, "We decided that we needed to provide ongoing staff development. And we decided that we needed to encourage teacher planning and collaboration at the building level."

Eighty-five percent of the grant provided for teacher salaries, with the remaining 15 percent used for training. The district contributed additional funds for materials and for the expense of renovations to school buildings to create additional classroom space.

Preparations
Training for first-grade teachers and elementary principals involved how to provide better instruction within the framework of the smaller classes. Guided by both district experts and the occasional outside consultant, educators worked to improve approaches to classroom management, studied instructional methods for teaching young students to read and write, honed their student assessment skills, and reviewed recent research on best practices. Additionally, they received instruction in a "four-block" approach to teaching literacy and an intervention model for struggling readers.

Pat Pruitt, Geiger Elementary Principal, notes that this training extends beyond Great Start classrooms: "Good instructional strategies and practices benefit all, not just those in Great Start."

"We, as a district, are learning more about exemplary first-grade instruction," says Rosellini. "We have an articulated, unified curriculum. We have addressed time, material, and student management. And we've asked all teachers to utilize a two-hour literacy block and a one-hour math block daily."

District training has been supplemented by regular team meetings at the building level. Teachers are given latitude in their approach to these meetings, setting their own agendas based on their unique building and classroom needs. Most find it useful to devote time to both problem-solving and critical focus group study, engaging in professional debate about aspects of literacy and learning.

From Cinders to Silk
Established in 1909, Mary Lyon Elementary on the east side of Tacoma is one of the district's oldest schools. With nearly 25 percent of the student body from non-English speaking homes, 48 percent from minority populations, and 68 percent in the free and reduced-price lunch program, it is also one of the most socioeconomically challenged in the city.

"We felt very fortunate" to be included, says Principal Pili Wolfe. "We're one of the schools that has been in the bottom 10 in both literacy and math, so to have this additional resource to help our kids is just great." Wolfe's school has three reduced-size classes in Great Start.

The odd thing is that, at first glance, Anne Tsuneishi's class doesn't seem especially small. It's only in comparison to the more familiar overstuffed classrooms that this one looks sparsely populated. This morning, Tsuneishi's students are spread out around her on the floor for storybook time, legs outstretched and crossed, hands mostly idle. Sixteen six-year-olds—each with the potential energy force of the animated Tasmanian Devil—can be quite a handful. But with this more manageable number, Tsuneishi is able to spot when a wriggle or a twitch is about to escalate into distraction or disruption, and nip it in the bud.

With the smaller class size, Wolfe observes, "Children are more focused and more time is spent on task. Less time is spent on classroom management, and there are fewer discipline problems."

Teacher's assistant Tanya Hendrix adds: "When kids act out, they're trying to get attention. But here, they're getting attention, so they don't have to act up to get it."

While the class as a whole may not look particularly small, the change in class size is stunning when students break up for small group work, as in Andrea Holzapfel's classroom next door. Their assignment involves reading comprehension. Since children sometimes recite familiar books by rote instead of by reading, the text from a favorite story has been printed on a worksheet, with the sentences out of order. The students must read the sentences to cut and paste them back into the proper order. When these groups of just three to five children interact with Holzapfel and two classroom assistants (one teacher's assistant and one student teacher), students have the opportunity to directly interact with an adult to make sure they comprehend the assignment. Because the groups are so small, there is time for one-on-one communication with each student.

"The extra individual attention really makes a difference," says Holzapfel. "You get to know kids much quicker, get to know their strengths and weaknesses. You're able to help them all."

So Many Pumpkins, One Well-Used Wand
In Betsy Guerra's classroom, students are struggling with a worksheet that instructs them to draw four red animals, draw three blue animals, and then count the number of animals. Eventually, the students will be asked to turn this visual exercise into a numeric equation. Since two of the students arrived just this week from Mexico and speak no English, the bilingual Guerra leans over their table to assist with translation. A parent helps at a second table where students ponder over what particular animals might be best for solving this riddle. Roselli, visiting from the district office, helps at a third, where one boy is having trouble comprehending what he's being asked to do. She softly coaxes him through it until he grasps the concept.

"That little boy was only able to do that exercise one-on-one," Roselli later says. "Kids can't hide in a class of 16."

Teachers report that, even in a class of 27, they can spot the most gifted and most challenged students. But in a larger class, it's very difficult to give those students the help they need, as well as to avoid the tendency of lumping average students together.

In smaller classes, gifted students are more likely to be given academic challenges, instead of spending their time tutoring other classmates. Kids in the middle are more likely to be seen as individuals, with unique strengths to build on and weaknesses to overcome. And struggling students who need extra time and assistance are more likely to get it. All because teachers have more time to devote to each student.

"The real difference," according to Gail Miller, an elementary education specialist in the district, "is that teachers can teach because the management issue is not so great. The focus of instruction and the pacing are so different in Great Start; they go further in a day and in a year."

Of course, teachers recognize that small class size is not a panacea for all the problems that plague education. But smaller classes, combined with training and collaboration, do make a difference. Holzapfel says, "I still have kids with learning problems, and I have four ESL kids this year, but it's a lot easier to give them the support they need."

At an after-school meeting, teachers meet with Principal Wolfe and the school's ESL and special education staff to discuss each first-grader's specific needs for the year. In many schools, it's a small percentage of students who need language and/or extra academic assistance; here, it seems to be the majority. There is much discussion on how best to serve students' needs with limited staff, and the teachers work to group and regroup students based on assessments performed the week prior, volunteering to work with and reassess borderline students to be sure they're getting the assistance they need to progress as quickly as possible.

Surprisingly, staff know all of the first-graders by name—even those in other classrooms—and contribute information on specific students that might be helpful. When first-grader Francisco's name comes up, kindergarten teacher Patrice Papen asks Tsuneishi if he is wearing his glasses, since he had a tendency to forget them last year. In the three weeks of school thus far, Tsuneishi has not seen them, so Papen suggests that a phone call to "Mama Rosa" might be most productive.

Improved relationships with parents are another plus. "Teachers have more contact with families and can give them suggestions for helping their children to succeed," Wolfe reports. "Even in conferencing, teachers are able to conference for longer than 20 minutes. With more kids, there just isn't time to do that."

Many of Lyon's students need all the help they can get, and progress is sometimes as much social as academic.

"Last year," Tsuneishi says, "we saw a lot of growth in the lowest performing kids. I had two kids who went through some very tough times at home. They were considered high-risk at the beginning of the year and were still high-risk at the end of the year. Things didn't end all roses and candy for them, but I believe it would have been harder for them in a larger class. I am convinced that with a full-size class, I wouldn't have had as much compassion or energy for them. One did make major academic progress; he went from knowing only a handful of letters and no words to knowing all his letters and a hundred words. Whether it's academic or behavioral learning, it does come down to time and attention. And it works the same for both special needs and average students."

Guerra cites a similar story about a struggling student who arrived with "a chip on his shoulder" and a tendency to act out. "It took constant, constant relationship-building to keep him on track. If he knew you loved him, he'd work hard for you. The relationship was what kept him steered to academics and appropriate behavior." Because of the smaller class size, Guerra was able to devote the extra time the child needed.

While students can't hide in smaller classes, teachers can't either. "They can't bury themselves in classroom management," Rosellini asserts. Great Start has "kept teachers hopping because they move through the curriculum so quickly."

Teachers must constantly add to their bag of teaching tools to be able to serve the varied needs of their students. At Mary Lyon Elementary, collaborative teacher meetings at the first-grade level were so visibly successful last year that the rest of the staff elected to participate in weekly grade-level collaborative sessions, as well.

"It's not just about class size," says Tsuneishi. "Having staff development, common planning time, and collaboration makes all the difference. And, yes, that takes more time. But we do it because our classroom instruction is better. Test scores are already indicating improvement."

When the Clock Strikes
It seems evident that Tacoma students are benefiting from Great Start.

"We have great anecdotal evidence of success," says Rosellini. "Our kids are further ahead in the year. They're covering the curriculum more quickly. Teachers have reported that they really know where students' strengths and weaknesses are, that a sense of community in the classroom has developed much faster, that they've developed relationships with parents more quickly, that conferencing is much more meaningful, and that they're less stressed."

Quantifiable evidence is expected to support the qualitative. A full analysis of data from the first and early second year is currently underway. Primary assessment tools include the Tacoma Screening Instrument, a basic assessment for literacy progress, and the Qualitative Reading Inventory, a fluency test that charts student progress. Parent and teacher surveys are used, as well.

Meanwhile, federal grant money only provides for Great Start to continue through the end of this school year, and that has some folks wondering: Will funding disappear when the clock strikes 12?

At this point, Tacoma staff members are confident that theirs will be a happily-ever-after story. After all, it's not just teachers who see the benefit of smaller classes. The issue is firmly in the legislative arena and has strong support from some powerful players. And "parents who want this," Rosellini hopes, "will continue to exercise their rights as citizens."

Even first-graders can see that smaller classes are better.

Six-year-old Janessa says, "There's more empty chairs so you can choose any chair you want."

And classmate Shawn has an even better reason: "Smaller classes are better 'cause you can get through the lunch line faster."

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