High School Courses and Classes with Small Numbers of Students
The topic of “small class sizes” in Fairfield’s high schools appears to have gained wider interest, including some new data from the School Administration in response to a question from a member of the Board of Finance.
Fairfield Taxpayer previously published a table on this subject that showed that 37% of the Courses offered in our two high schools had an average number of students per class below 16 (i.e., 1-15). These data came directly from the school administration’s ~100-page lists for each high school of every course and class offered, and are based on the average number of students per class for each course reported in those lists.
In contrast, the recent response from the School Administration indicated that the total number of Classes with fewer than 15 students (i.e., 1-14) was only 21% of the total.
Why the big difference between 37% and 21%?
The biggest reason for the difference is that the two numbers are answers to two different questions. The “37%” answers the question, “How many Courses offered in the two high schools have an average number of students per class of less than 16?” So, if a course attracts 20 students in two classes, with 18 students in one class and 2 students in the other, then both will be counted because the average number of students per class is 10. The “21%” answers the question, “How many Classes have fewer than 16 students?” In this case, only one of the two classes in our example will be counted.
Which answer is “better”?
Fairfield Taxpayer believes that the purpose of this exercise is to identify courses that seem to have limited student demand so that the Board of Education can consider whether they are cost effective. Putting four students in a classroom with a teacher is obviously far less cost effective than putting 25 students in the same classroom. However, in many cases, small average class size is either not a problem or an unavoidable problem. Only the Board of Education can make these decisions, and they may decide that a higher cost per student for a particular course is justified. Or they may decide, among many other options, that multiple small classes of the same course should be combined into a single larger class, or that it might be possible to combine more than one course level in the same class, or that a course can be redesigned to attract more students, etc.
In what remains a difficult economic environment in a town that has raised its spending and taxes at 2.5x-3.0x the rate of inflation over the last 17 years, all Fairfield residents – both the 30% with children in our schools and the 70% who do not – have a vested interest in doing everything we can to spend our tax dollars as wisely and as efficiently as possible.
The second reason for the difference between 37% and 21% is that, for reasons we cannot explain (but for which there may be perfectly reasonable explanations, including more recent information), the answers from the Administration do not include a large number of classes that, according to the 100-page detailed course lists, have fewer than 15 students. To be exact, we count an additional 134 classes with fewer than 10 students, and if you also add the 42 classes with exactly 15 students (to go from <15 to <16), then the Administration’s 21% becomes 36%. However, we hasten to add that the similarity of the two numbers (37% and 36%) is purely a coincidence, because they are answering the two different questions noted above.
We have provided a spreadsheet below that lists every course with an average number of students per class that is below 16. Please note, that we have excluded special education, ELL, music performing groups, Aqua regional high school, study hall, home room and physical education courses.
For those interested in statistical nuances, the 37% we started with has increased to 43% because we have now included AP courses and math workshops. Also, our total number of classes with fewer than 16 students is only 24%, versus the 36% we derived above by adjusting the Administration’s data, because we do not count any classes with fewer than 16 students if they are simply one or two of many for a large, multi-class course that in the aggregate has an average class size above 15.
Fairfield Taxpayer previously published a table on this subject that showed that 37% of the Courses offered in our two high schools had an average number of students per class below 16 (i.e., 1-15). These data came directly from the school administration’s ~100-page lists for each high school of every course and class offered, and are based on the average number of students per class for each course reported in those lists.
In contrast, the recent response from the School Administration indicated that the total number of Classes with fewer than 15 students (i.e., 1-14) was only 21% of the total.
Why the big difference between 37% and 21%?
The biggest reason for the difference is that the two numbers are answers to two different questions. The “37%” answers the question, “How many Courses offered in the two high schools have an average number of students per class of less than 16?” So, if a course attracts 20 students in two classes, with 18 students in one class and 2 students in the other, then both will be counted because the average number of students per class is 10. The “21%” answers the question, “How many Classes have fewer than 16 students?” In this case, only one of the two classes in our example will be counted.
Which answer is “better”?
Fairfield Taxpayer believes that the purpose of this exercise is to identify courses that seem to have limited student demand so that the Board of Education can consider whether they are cost effective. Putting four students in a classroom with a teacher is obviously far less cost effective than putting 25 students in the same classroom. However, in many cases, small average class size is either not a problem or an unavoidable problem. Only the Board of Education can make these decisions, and they may decide that a higher cost per student for a particular course is justified. Or they may decide, among many other options, that multiple small classes of the same course should be combined into a single larger class, or that it might be possible to combine more than one course level in the same class, or that a course can be redesigned to attract more students, etc.
In what remains a difficult economic environment in a town that has raised its spending and taxes at 2.5x-3.0x the rate of inflation over the last 17 years, all Fairfield residents – both the 30% with children in our schools and the 70% who do not – have a vested interest in doing everything we can to spend our tax dollars as wisely and as efficiently as possible.
The second reason for the difference between 37% and 21% is that, for reasons we cannot explain (but for which there may be perfectly reasonable explanations, including more recent information), the answers from the Administration do not include a large number of classes that, according to the 100-page detailed course lists, have fewer than 15 students. To be exact, we count an additional 134 classes with fewer than 10 students, and if you also add the 42 classes with exactly 15 students (to go from <15 to <16), then the Administration’s 21% becomes 36%. However, we hasten to add that the similarity of the two numbers (37% and 36%) is purely a coincidence, because they are answering the two different questions noted above.
We have provided a spreadsheet below that lists every course with an average number of students per class that is below 16. Please note, that we have excluded special education, ELL, music performing groups, Aqua regional high school, study hall, home room and physical education courses.
For those interested in statistical nuances, the 37% we started with has increased to 43% because we have now included AP courses and math workshops. Also, our total number of classes with fewer than 16 students is only 24%, versus the 36% we derived above by adjusting the Administration’s data, because we do not count any classes with fewer than 16 students if they are simply one or two of many for a large, multi-class course that in the aggregate has an average class size above 15.
| hs_class_sizes.pdf |
