ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
The size of an elementary schoolchild's class in Roanoke depends on where he or she goes to school.
The average class in kindergarten through grade five at Hurt Park Elementary has 14.7 pupils, the smallest in the city.
At Fishburn Park, it's 20.9, the largest, according to school enrollment and staffing records.
At the Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science, classes average 15.5 children. At Raleigh Court, the average is 20.1 pupils.
Why the difference?
Because of the economic characteristics of neighborhoods and the state's formula for distributing school-disparity funds to localities.
The smallest classes are in schools in inner-city neighborhoods where a large percentage of children qualify for free or reduced-priced lunches - the government's yardstick for measuring poverty and distributing financial aid.
In recent years, the General Assembly has provided incentive money to school systems to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes in kindergarten through grade three at schools in poorer neighborhoods. The funds can be used only to hire more teachers at schools meeting the guidelines on subsidized lunches.
Educators say studies have shown that children, particularly those in low-income areas, do better academically in small classes because teachers can give them more individual attention.
The largest classes are in elementary schools in affluent and middle-class areas where fewer pupils are eligible for subsidized lunches.
The five schools with the smallest average classes share one characteristic: More than 70 percent of their pupils receive subsidized lunches. They are Fallon Park, Forest Park, Hurt Park, Lincoln Terrace and Roanoke Academy.
In the five schools with the largest average classes, fewer than 50 percent of the children receive free or reduced-priced lunches. They are Fairview, Fishburn Park, Grandin Court, Huff Lane and Raleigh Court.
Faye Pleasants, executive for human resources for Roanoke schools, said the average class size for all of the city's 21 elementary schools is 17.9 pupils - far below the maximum of 25 that is permitted by the state's Standards of Quality for education.
Last year, the average class for the elementary schools was 19.
"Pupil-teacher ratios in Roanoke schools compare quite favorably with the Virginia standards," Pleasants said. The average class size in the city's middle schools is 17.6, and it's 18.5 in the high schools.
Marilyn Arbogast, president of the Raleigh Court Parent-Teacher Association, said Tuesday she is "fairly happy" with the sizes of the classes at the school although they are larger than those in most schools.
"At this point, there are one or two classes with more children than we would like. We were worried that we might lose a teacher, but that didn't happen," she said
At Grandin Court Elementary, where the average is 19.8 pupils, PTA President Brenda Bryant said some classes are smaller than a year ago.
"We have a fifth-grade class that is larger than we would like, but overall this year is better than it has been in some time," Bryant said.
School Board member John Saunders, who has voiced concern about the size of some elementary classes in the past, said most parents seem satisfied this year.
While the state provides the additional funds only for hiring more teachers for kindergarten through grade three, this helps lower the overall average class size for elementary schools, including grades four and five.
With the additional state funds, classes in kindergarten through the third grade were reduced two years ago to 20 children in 10 of the city's elementary schools where the percentage of children receiving subsidized lunches is between 25 and 50.
The state also provided money to reduce the classes to 18 children in six schools where more than 50 percent of the children receive free or reduced-priced lunches.
This year, the state provided funds to hire more teachers to reduce class sizes to 15 in five schools where more than 70 percent of the lunches are subsidized. The city hired 16 additional teachers to provide the smaller classes.
Only a handful of schools in Roanoke County and Salem qualify for the state disparity funds. In many cases, classes in the lower elementary grades are larger in the county and Salem than those in Roanoke.
Class sizes can vary widely by grades within Roanoke's elementary schools because of enrollment patterns. At Fallon Park, with an overall average of 16.3 pupils per class, the kindergarten classes average 16; first grade, 12.9; second grade, 17.4; third grade, 14.6; fourth grade, 21.6; and fifth grade, 21.1.
School officials believe the smaller classes will help improve the pupils' scores on standardized tests, which is one of Superintendent Wayne Harris' goals for the school system.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Chart by staff: Pupil-teacher ration. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB