The Battalion
0 N
Monday • February^
Research supporting smaller
classrooms sparks controversy
GOP says Saddam ml
be forced out of pofe
WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after Cal
ifornia began drastically reducing class
room size, teachers and parents alike are
pleased with the change. Now President
Clinton is campaigning for smaller classes
everywhere.
Although classrooms across the nation
already are far less crowded than they were
in California, the administration wants to
spend $12 billion over seven years to hire
100,000 new teachers for grades one
through three. Officials cite research they
say links smaller classes to better learning.
But the research is less supportive than
public opinion polls, working teachers and
common sense in favor of lower class sizes.
Researchers have studied and debated the
issue for decades, often harshly.
“When you ask teachers, they seem to
know instinctively classrooms should be
smaller,” said Marshall S. Smith, acting
deputy secretary of education, when ques
tioned about dueling studies. In the Rea
gan and Bush years, the Education De
partment opposed class-size reduction as
expensive and ineffective.
The National Education Association,
the nation’s largest teachers’ union, has
been pushing since the late 1960s for
classes of 15 pupils.
Smith and others quote from a “fairly
rigorous” study of a Tennessee experi
ment during the 1980s with cutting class
sizes from 25 pupils to 15 in kindergarten
through the third grade. The study found
that pupils in smaller classes did better
on standardized tests.
Other researchers say the starting and
ending numbers in any reduction
scheme are more important than the
numbers in between. In California, aver
age class size in the early grades went
from 30 to the legally prescribed 20. Clin
ton wants to bring classes down from an
average of 22 nationwide to 18.
“Reducing class size from 22 to 18 is
unlikely to make a big difference,” Robert
Slavin, a researcher at Baltimore’s Johns
Hopkins University and head of a suc
cessful reading program, said. “Reducing
“When you ask
teachers, they seem to
know instinctively
classrooms should
be smaller.’ 5
Marshall S. Smith
Acting deputy secretary
of education
class size from 30 to 18 is probably going
to make a much larger difference.”
“It’s very expensive, and probably has
more to do with building morale and a
positive environment with the schools
than it does with achievement,” Slavin,
who believes reducing class size is “a
good thing to do,” said.
Under the plan, California would get
$124 million; NewYork, $101 million; Texas,
$94 million; Florida, $50 million; Illinois and
Pennsylvania, $49 million each; and Ohio,
$45 million.
Slavin praised Clinton for wanting to
phase in the hiring of teachers and assure
that they are qualified, hoping to avoid
troubles California had in its crash pro
gram, and to stress reading. But he said the
money could be more efficiently used on
tutoring or other targeted approaches.
The proposal figures on an average
teacher cost of $35,000 in salary and bene
fits. Local districts would pay 10 percent to
50 percent of the cost, with poor districts
getting a higher subsidy. About 37,000
teachers would be hired the first year.
Gene V Glass, at Arizona State Univer
sity in Tempe, questioned the benefits.
“The difference in achievement be
tween where we are now, which is 22, 23,
24 kids per class, and where the president
is talking about, 18, is very small,” he said.
“You have to go way, way down to get
gains that are appreciable, that would
even be noticeable to a teacher,” he said.
“Those numbers are 10 or six students in
an instructional group.”
Eric A. Hanushek, a University of
Rochester economist, said class sizes
have been shrinking nationwide, with no
gain in achievement on national stan
dardized tests.
Polls consistently find voter support for
smaller classes. In California’s Orange
County, some parents are putting their
children back from private schools into
public schools because of smaller classes.
“Teachers are thrilled, parents are
thrilled,” says Roni Ellis, principal of Har
bour View Elementary School in Hunting-
ton Beach, Calif. “It’s a quality program that
allows teachers to better understand the
needs of every child in their classroom.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright promised Sunday that
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will be pun
ished severely if the United States decides to
use militaiy force to enforce U.N. resolutions.
Republican leaders contended that’s not
enough — the ultimate goal, they said, is to
drive Saddam from power.
Albright repeated that Saddam has only
weeks to accede to a diplomatic solution to
avoid a U.S.-led attack. Bill Richardson, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, rejected the
latest Iraqi offer to avoid it, a two-month win
dow for U.N. officials to inspect Saddam’s pres
idential palaces for concealed weapons.
Albright, speaking on CBS' “Face the Na
tion,” said any military action against Iraq
for interfering with U.N. weapons inspectors
would be a "substantial strike" aimed at di
minishing Saddam’s ability to rebuild
weapons of mass destruction and threaten
his neighbors.
Defense Secretary William Cohen arrived
Sunday in Saudi Arabia to discuss the Iraq
question and said the United States had
enough firepower in the region to carry out
strikes without using U.S. bases in Saudi
Arabia. Saudi leaders have been reported
opposing the use of force against Iraq and
has been reluctant to allow military missions
to originate from Saudi soil.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-
Miss., speaking after Albright on CBS, said
there are worries in Congress that the ad
ministration lacks an effective endgame,
which would include removing Saddam.
Lott suggested support for democratic
forces in Iraq as a way to do it, or setting up a
Radio Free Iraq or expanding the U.N.-ordered
flight-interdiction zone over Iraq. “I’m not talk
ing about assassination, but I’m talking about
a coherent long-term policy,"L®
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.,0
the Senate intelligence commit
“Fox News Sunday” that he wot
military action against Iraq butt
timately. though, we'regoingto*
up to the fact were
going to have to get
rid of him, one way or
the other.”
"We would obvi
ously,” Albright said,
“look forward to
dealing with a differ
ent Iraqi regime, but
we have to be very
clear about what we
are after."
Sen. Joseph
Biden, D-Del., said
on Fox that taking
out Saddam is “not a doable;
would require significant
ground forces that I don't thirijj
would support.”
The Republican-controlledCfl
been working on a statements ^
administration policy towardW
failed to agree on what it shouki
Former Gen. Norman Sctwai
mander of the coalition forcesfc(
beat Iraq in the 1991 PersianGtf
\M( "Meet tin' Press” thatrem or ,
would be a “very, very' tough thin, _
out better intelligence and a wife
ground forces.
But he warned of a risk that
bombing of North Vietnam duq
nam War, punishing Iraq wilt
without eliminating Iraq's rulers
toughen their resolve. R
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