Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994 TAG: 9405270089
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When the Blacksburg High School calculus teacher talks, sine waves, tangents, derivatives, parabolas and functions seem almost simple.
Her students can't help but have it rub off on them. Jonathan Tze, one of her Advanced Placement calculus students, said she inspires fierce loyalty. He quipped, "If she's that energetic about a derivative, you can't fall asleep on her."
But numbers are beginning to turn on her. No second or third derivatives - these are simple integers. 28. 27. 32. The numbers of the class sizes she's had in the last two years.
No one would say that she does a poor job of juggling 27 students. Yet sometimes the strain shows. Reviewing test problems one day, she rushes through all the calculations the students request.
"I'm doing them as fast as I can, but I'm a little stressed," she tells her class.
Several of Blacksburg High School's departments are stressed under the load of Advanced Placement students. The courses can allow students to opt out of introductory classes in college, but more importantly, they impress admissions officers. All of Montgomery County's high schools offer AP classes, but Blacksburg is the only one where crowded classes have become common.
Science AP courses, often two periods long, are small, as are most English AP classes. Several classes have fewer than 20 students. But the math and social studies departments consistently have AP courses that hover around 30.
Some teachers and students say that motivated, intelligent students can be crammed into large classes more easily than others, and it's not a problem. But the amount of outside work for teachers and the amount of material to be covered preparing for national AP tests lead others to say teachers are approaching burnout and students are less rigorously challenged in some crowded classes.
Dolores Grapsas, head of Blacksburg's social studies department, knows a trend when she sees one.
And she doesn't like this one.
Ten years ago, her two Advanced Placement U.S. History classes each had about 20 students. Then she'd assign "The Grapes of Wrath," "The Jungle," "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," and Irving Stone's "Jane Adams." The students would write two research papers, about eight-12 pages each, with a minimum of four to five sources. Every other week students would write two essays, about four pages.
Eight years ago, she dropped the novels.
Three years ago, she dropped the second research paper.
Last year, she dropped the other research paper, and made 25 percent of the tests multiple-choice only.
This year, half the tests are just bubble sheets. Students write one essay every other week.
This year, she has 63 AP History students, one class of 31, one class of 32, half again as large as her classes ten years ago. This year, she teaches 145 students. The state cap is 150. This year, she no longer checks for subject-verb agreement or transitions, she only grades for content.
"I'm angry. I'm very angry," she said. "All their research skills, I hope they get them somewhere else."
Blacksburg High School Principal Alfred Smith said these classes are where students acquire high-level skills. Parents and students should not be satisfied only with a high score on the AP test, he said. The real value of the class is "the exposure to critical thinking skills, analysis."
No academic core class should be over 25, he said. But a list of BHS class sizes in math, science, social studies and English shows that nearly one-fourth of those classes - that's 48 - do exceed the limit. And 10 classes have 30 or more students.
How many is so many that the quality of education suffers?
"In science, once you run out of workstations, then you're lowering standards," he said.
But Smith said that these standards don't count when money is tight. He asked for two more teachers this year because enrollment went up by 40 students. He received none. And next year doesn't look promising.
"I can't just keep absorbing these kids into courses," he said.
Smith and other principals have leeway within each school in deciding how to assign their teachers and match teachers and courses, but a small class one place means a large class somewhere else.
It would only take 1.8 to 2.2 more teachers, at a cost of about $75,000, to meet the 25-student goal, he said.
Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers said Montgomery County has no explicit target size for classes. The state standards say classes should be fewer than 35, and English classes must have an average of 24.
"We frown upon classes over 30," he said, but scheduling is decided by each school.
The School Board often talks about a 25-student limit, Sellers said, but the county has never approved a budget that could staff at that level. "Until those two match, we do the best we can with the resources we have."
The teachers do the best they can, too.
Maddy makes up for harried classes by coming in early or staying late to tutor whenever she's asked. "I've taught them before school, I've taught them after school, I've taught them during lunch. I even worked on bus duty. You help them walking down the hall. They follow me to the bathroom." She laughed.
This day's calculus class is no exception, as someone asks for help. "After school? Thursday ... OK, I traded bus duties, I'll be there," Maddy said, waving hands stained with ink from the overhead markers. She downplays the heavy workload. "I can handle more," she insisted.
A few days after the interview, she found out that her AP class next year will be 34, not 24, as she'd thought. Even if a couple drop, it'll be as large as two years ago, a year she called "terrible" and "rough."
Grapsas and AP government teacher Karen Coston are not quite so stoic. They sent memos to the Parent Teacher Association and the director of secondary schools curriculum.
"We recommend that no AP class have more than 20 students because of the pressure of outside work required by these teachers," the memo read.
Grapsas grades 3,024 essays and tests a year from her AP students. She grades 4,800 essays and tests a year from her college-level students.
"It simply means you sit down at 8:00 at night, don't get up until 2 in the morning if you want to do it right," she said.
Grapsas has been ill more this year than ever before. "There are days I've been a walking zombie.
"I'm seriously considering leaving," said Grapsas, 55. "I have a lot to give, but I can't give that much."
by CNB