ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
TEACHERS FIND the school day a great deal less frustrating when they've got enough time to spend with each student.
When Vicki Newburn began teaching at Forest Park Elementary School in Roanoke five years ago, she had 28 children in her class. At a school in another locality earlier in her career, she had 32 children in her room.
This year she has 15 in her kindergarten class. But she's not complaining.
She believes she can do a better job because she can provide more individual attention.
"With a smaller class, you can target problems earlier," she said. "If a child has a deficiency, you can spot it and help the child."
With a large class, there is little opportunity to work with pupils individually, Newburn said.
For the first three school days this week, she has worked with only a third of her class daily. The city's policy requires one third of each kindergarten class to attend each day until the teacher has had a chance to get to know each pupil and help each adjust.
On Thursday, Newburn's reading lesson for four of her pupils was like a tutoring session because she could help each individually.
"This is nice because you want to give them as much attention as possible," she said. "It's amazing what a kindergartner can learn by the end of the year."
Forest Park is one of five elementary schools in Roanoke where classes in kindergarten and the first three grades this year have no more than 15 children.
It is the latest step in the school system's ongoing effort to reduce the size of classes in schools with large numbers of children from low-income families.
About 85 percent of the children at Forest Park, a magnet school with an enrollment of 335, are eligible for subsidized lunches - the government's yardstick for measuring poverty and distributing financial aid.
Educators say that children, particularly those in schools in poor neighborhoods, do better academically in small classes.
Nancy Northern, a first-grade teacher at the school with 15 in her class, said it's easier to "pull together a small class and focus the children" on lessons.
Three years ago, Northern had 24 in her class.
"With the smaller class, I can get around and help the children individually without the rest of the class falling apart," she said. "I find that I go home at the end of the day less frustrated because I feel like I have met the needs of the children."
She said it's much easier to have pupils read aloud during reading lessons when the class is small. "They don't have to wait so long to read and lose interest."
Northern said first-graders expect the teacher to respond to them personally and tell them how they're doing.
"They want immediate feedback because they've been getting that from their mothers," she said. "They want to know if they're correct."
First-graders also need individual attention with their lessons, particularly in reading, because it is a critical year in their education, Northern said. "I think every child should read by the end of first grade."
Laura Dearing, a second-grade teacher at Forest Park, said the smaller class makes an "incredible difference" because it enables her to monitor her pupils in their lessons.
"I can give every child attention," she said. "I'm able to see how each one is doing as they read and write."
The traditional rows of desks with teachers lecturing at the front of the room have disappeared with the large classes. Round tables and chairs have replaced desks.
At Forest Park, some teachers work at easels and children sit on rugs and carpet for some lessons. The second-graders sat on the floor in front of Dearing on Thursday for a reading lesson.
The children moved to their tables for a writing lesson. Dearing walked among the tables, checking the children's work and commenting on it.
The other elementary schools with classes of 15 or fewer children in kindergarten through the third grade are Fallon Park, Hurt Park, Lincoln Terrace and Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science.
With financial help from the state, classes in kindergarten through the third grade were reduced two years ago to 20 children in about half of the Roanoke elementary schools where the percentage of children receiving subsidized lunches is between 25 and 50.
Money also was provided to reduce the classes to 18 children where more than 50 percent of the children receive subsidized lunches.
This year, the state provided funds to pay about 50 percent of the cost of hiring additional teachers to reduce the classes to 15 in schools - such as Forest Park - where more than 70 percent of the lunches are subsidized.
Roanoke hired 16 additional teachers this year to provide the smaller classes at the five schools.
The localities pay the rest, including the expense of additional classrooms if needed.
Faye Claytor-Wood, Forest Park's principal, said all of the school's classrooms are being used to provide space for the smaller classes. "We don't have any room left."
Although the school would need trailers or additional classrooms, Claytor-Wood said she would like to see the state offer financial help to provide small classes in the fourth and fifth grades. She believes all children would benefit from them.
"You have children with so many varied abilities in a class," she said. "Sometimes slow learners fall through the cracks if they don't qualify for special programs and are left in a regular class."
The pupil-teacher ratio varies in the city's elementary schools, but some classes in schools that don't qualify for the state incentive money have more 20 children.
School officials hope the smaller classes will help improve the pupils' scores on standardized tests, one of Superintendent Wayne Harris' goals for the school system.
"It might take four or five years, but lowering class size is one of the best ways to help improve test scores," said Linda Wyatt, an elementary teacher and Vice Mayor. "You won't see it immediately, but it will have an impact."
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff. 1. Samara Cotton, 5, gets a helpingby CNBhand from kindergarten teacher Vicki Newburn while Brenae Taylor,
also 5, observes. Newburn is enjoying having a smaller class at
Forest Park Elementary School. 2. Second-graders Ryshineka Savoy, 7
(left), and Brittany Hairston, 8, respond to a question from teacher
Laura Dearing at Forest Park Elementary School. color.