DoDEA Proposes Drastic Increases to Middle School Class Sizes
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DoDEA Proposal to Increase Middle School Class Sizes
In a memo to DoDEA staff that became public in late April, DoDEA Director Dr. Shirley Miles stated her intention to drastically increase class sizes in DoDEA middle schools by increasing the Student to Teacher Ratio (PTR) from 16:1 to 25:1.
You can read that memo, along with Dr. Miles' memos on cutting kindergarten aides and hiring 160 new "Resource Managers" at the Stars & Stripes Web site
The memo from Dr. Miles indicates that 350 teaching positions in grades 6-8 would be cut under her proposal.
DoDEA has claimed that the increase in middle school class sizes will not be as significant as it sounds. In statements to the media, DoDEA has said the current 16:1 ratio does not include such specialized subjects as art, music, and physical education, and if the larger class sizes for those subjects were considered along with the "regular" middle school classes, the true average class size across all middle school subjects currently would be about 22 students.
However, DoDEA does not mention that the proposed new 25:1 PTR for middle schools would also not include those specialized subjects such as music, art, etc. If those larger, specialized classes were added to the "regular" class sizes under the proposed 25:1 PTR, the "real" average class size for all DoDEA middle school classes would be 30 or more students.
Regardless of how DoDEA tries to hide the numbers, the result is a major increase in the size of middle school classes across DoDEA.
Larger class sizes mean less individual attention per student, which hurts overall academic achievement.
In DoDEA's own Customer Satisfaction Survey for School Year 2008-2009, parents/sponsors and students were asked what change could be made to improve the quality of education at DoDEA schools. Of the options available (excluding "none of the above") "reducing class sizes" finished a close second to "raising academic standards" as the most important potential improvement. Despite this clear feedback from its stakeholders, DoDEA is now proposing to raise the PTR in middle schools, and to effectively raise the PTR in kindergarten classes.
There is no budgetary necessity or educationally-sound reason for making this change. Dr. Miles has offered no rationale at all for her proposal to radically increase middle school class sizes by cutting teachers. The fact that she is simultaneously planning to hire 160 new "Resource Managers" (who will handle logistics duties already being covered by numerous administrators and employees, thereby making these positions completely unnecessary) lead to the conclusion that the staffing cuts are being made to pay for more administrative personnel.
Once details of her plans became public, Dr. Miles immediately began backtracking, claiming that DoDEA had no plans to cut staff so drastically. However, her own memo (see link, above) clearly spells out the number of proposed staffing cuts per school under her proposal.
Since the plan become public, Dr. Miles also backtracked from the declarative statement in her memo -- "I am changing the Middle School staffing to a Pupil to Teacher (PTR) ratio of 25 to 1." -- to an insistence that her announcement was merely a proposal and that she would convene a task force next school year to advise her on the proposed change. How much influence that task force will actually have, as well as who will appoint it and who will serve on it, remain to be seen.
Increasing middle school class sizes in DoDEA is unnecessary and will be harmful to the quality of education in DoD schools.