Haimson, founder of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit advocacy group, wasn’t surprised by the teacher’s reaction. “We’ve been fighting with the city about class size for years,” she said. “New York City has the largest class sizes in the state and among the largest in the country.”

Although the city has reported a decline in class size over the last five years, average class size in any grade has not dropped below 20 students, the point at which researchers begin to see academic benefits, especially for younger children as well as immigrant and minority students. Despite studies showing that smaller classes produce academic gains, the tricky part of reducing class size is getting it right when schools face real world constraints such as the availability of qualified, experienced teachers and adequate space to open new classrooms.

As the 2007-08 school year begins this week in New York City for its 1.1 million public school students, the subject of class size looms large. New York City will receive $3.2 billion from the state for education over the next four years – about $700 million for this school year -- as the result of the settlement of the 14-year Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. Part of the money is supposed to be used to reduce class sizes. The final exam question hanging over this reallocation of funds is: Will smaller classes be the answer to boosting city students’ academic performance?

Class sizes much larger than 20 are commonplace for many city schools. The twin sons of Patrick J. Sullivan, an Upper East Side resident who serves on the borough president’s panel for educational policy, shared their second grade public school classroom with 26 other students last year. Seth Pearce, 17, Dana O’Brien, 16, and Lorenzo Mendez, 17, all seniors at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music and Performing Arts on the Upper West Side and members of the NYC Student Union, said that their classes are usually 30 to 34 students in size. They said that their lab classes sometimes swell to close to 40 students, making it impossible for many students to either see demonstrations or participate in lab work.

Research studies on the relationship between class size and academic benefits have generally shown:
• Class size should be less than 20 students to achieve academic benefits.
• Gains are highest in earlier grades, kindergarten through third.
• Minority and immigrant students show the strongest gains.
• Gains from smaller classes in early grades last into upper grades.

“The most important thing in a student’s education is a highly qualified teacher, and the second most important thing is a small class size,” said City Council Member Robert Jackson who helped initiate the long-running Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. The suit charged that the state’s method of allocating funds for public education did not provide adequately for New York City children.

Haimson, as both a parent and advocate, faces her son’s new fourth grade school year with trepidation because she has been told that the size of her son’s class will be comparable to last year’s classroom of 28 children. She withdrew her daughter, now a senior in a private school, from the public school system in seventh grade because she said her daughter wasn’t getting noticed in overly large classes.

Her unease about large class size is widely shared by both the public and teachers. A 2005 Newsday/NY1 poll of over 1, 300 registered voters found that class size was identified as the biggest issue facing the city public school system. The National Education Association supports a class size of 15 students in regular programs and even smaller in programs for students with exceptional needs. The American Federation of Teachers recommends a class size between 15 and 19 students.

“If you want to help kids, you reduce class size. Arguments against reducing class size are hogwash,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers. However, strategies to create smaller classes have to be implemented thoughtfully to produce the desired academic gains.

In the late 1990s, California attempted to reduce class sizes below 20 students. But many schools did not have enough teachers to staff the newly required classrooms, so districts hired inexperienced teachers as well as teachers who weren’t yet fully certified. Schools also didn’t have enough space available for new classrooms. They opened classrooms in temporary spots, such as gyms and trailers. “Some of those settings probably weren’t very good learning environments,” said Aaron M. Pallas, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. The result: California’s class size reduction plan did not yield the improved academic achievement that the state had expected.

Joel Klein, New York City schools chancellor, has said, “Any fool can lower class size by the numbers. The question is can you lower class size at the same time you maintain and improve teacher quality?” The city took a stab at answering that question in a five-year class size reduction plan it had to submit to the state this past July. The plan had to be aligned with the city’s department of education capital spending budget in order to avoid creating the same problems that arose in California.

But small class size advocates, who have fought for reductions for more than a decade, aren’t satisfied with the plan, which relies on individual school principals to allocate limited resources to create smaller classes. They also wonder if enough new space will be added to meet the demand created by smaller class size requirements.

Still, the Department of Education has defended its proposal.

“Principals are in the best position to determine how to reduce class size in the context of their schools’ overall need,” Debra Wexler, spokesperson for the city’s department of education, wrote in an e-mail. She pointed out that the city’s plan offers principals coaching to help them make informed decisions about class size reductions that will balance the needs of students, as well as the space, teachers, time and money available in their individual schools.

At press time, the state had not yet approved the city’s plan, although the deadline was Aug. 15. State officials had also requested more information from the city about the plan’s specific details.

“We’re pleased that the state did not rubber stamp the city’s plan,” said Helaine K. Doran, deputy director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which continues to push for smaller classes. “It’s critical to be on top of what’s being done with the money,” she said and added, “We now have to be sure that the money is being spent well and has impact.”

Pallas, of Teachers College agreed that the city’s Department of Education hasn’t been clear about how much money will get to schools and how those funds will be spent. He also wonders if the new influx of dollars, which is supposed to be targeted at higher-needs schools to avoid the problem of spreading the money too thinly, will even come close to being enough. “The city schools’ resource needs are so great,” Pallas said, “that even the Campaign for Fiscal Equity money feels like a drop in the bucket.”

Meanwhile, this past summer, LaGuardia high school senior Dana O’Brien got her first taste of smaller class sizes. O’Brien, who has attended New York City public schools since kindergarten, participated in a program at Northwestern University where classes were capped at 16 students. “I’ve never been in classes with 16 students before,” O’Brien said. “When there are only 16 kids, there’s no way to escape engagement.”