February 19, 2011 in City

Shared classrooms: Tight budgets may force more schools to combine grades

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Priest Lake Elementary teacher Sara Butler smiles during class Tuesday. She teaches kindergarten through second grade at the school.
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First-grader Bobby Best worked independently in the rural North Idaho classroom, diligently making her way through an activity book.

A short distance away, teacher Sara Butler instructed a reading group in Priest Lake Elementary’s K-2 class. Other students sat at their desks and read to each other or went across the hall to help kindergartners with spelling.

Priest Lake Elementary is the only school in the West Bonner School District with combined grade-level classrooms. In addition to K-2, grades 3-4 and 5-6 are combined classes.

Mixing primary grades is unusual in Inland Northwest school districts – Coeur d’Alene School District doesn’t have any such classes, and Spokane Public Schools has 35 mixed classes in its 34 elementary schools.

Teaching multiple curriculums is complicated, school officials say. Nevertheless, combined classes could become more commonplace as Washington and Idaho lawmakers cut further into education funding and school administrators look for ways to make more reductions.

“Priest Lake Elementary has combo classrooms due mainly to their small student population (47),” said Michael McGuire, superintendent of the West Bonner district. Plus, “combo classrooms are the only feasible way to organize learning for K-6 with only three regular education teachers.”

If legislation proposing further cuts to education is approved in Idaho, “we will be looking for any possibilities of combo classes for next fall at our other two elementary schools,” he said.

‘It’s run like a business here’

Teaching a combined-grade level class requires organization and multitasking.

Butler has to plan and teach three math curriculums, three reading curriculums and three writing curriculums. She makes it look easy, but she’s taught at the rural elementary school – tucked into the base of the Selkirk Mountains – for 12 years, she says.

“The planning and organizing is the biggest part,” Butler said. “If you were to look at my lesson plan book, it’s all separated,” pointing to her planner. Her school day is divided into 30-minute increments.

State assessments are another challenge. “Three different skills are tested three times per year for each grade,” Butler said. “I need to make sure I am aware of where they each need to be.”

Math ability among Butler’s students ranges from recognizing numbers and shapes to addition and subtraction. In writing, it’s recognizing a word to writing a book report. In reading, it ranges from identifying letters to reading chapter books.

To make it all work, Butler has a daily routine.

“In the morning, I have everything ready to go,” with worksheets on desks, for example. “The kids are good about looking at the board and getting started on what they need to do.”

She added, “It’s run like a business here. Everything needs to be perfectly ready.”

Butler has a teaching assistant and the help of volunteers, she said. The Priest Lake community raised money to pay for the assistant this school year because the district lacked funds.

The kids are also helpful. “While I’m teaching a math group, I’ve taught my kids to do a review from the day before or a math game,” Butler said.

Second-grader Hannah Palfry says she often helps the kindergartners and first-graders with math. “I teach them how to add. I like to help,” the 7-year-old said. “It gets them ready for the second grade.”

Mixing boosts social skills

In Canada, where about 21 percent of elementary classrooms are combined, a 2007 study by the education department in Ontario found the mixed grade levels help with students’ social development.

Students “learn how to work on their own and as part of a team, build leadership abilities as they work together and help each other and develop decision making skills, and become more self-motivated and responsible,” the study concluded.

The most recent study in the United States – 1991 – concurred with the benefit to students. “Observed work habits of children indicated a high degree of self discipline.”

The U.S. study noted that mixed classrooms are more common in rural districts for financial reasons. But larger school districts, like Spokane Public Schools, could be forced to increase the number of mixed-level classes.

Gone are the days when a teacher will have a small, one-grade class, said Staci Vesneske, assistant superintendent.

“Creation of them might be more common in the future because districts don’t have the flexibility financially of having a class of 18 or 19,” she said. “If you say every teacher has to be at 25, and there are two smaller classes at different grade levels, then you will end up with a combined class.”

The Coeur d’Alene School District has not taught combined classes for at least 10 years and doesn’t anticipate going back, but nothing is being ruled out, said spokeswoman Laura Rumpler.

“The reason is because of the difficulty of teaching different levels of curriculum standards,” Rumpler said. “It’s extremely hard to teach more than one grade level.”

She said the size of the Coeur d’Alene system makes such a move unlikely, but added, “it would just be a matter of, ‘Will it save us money or won’t it?’ ”

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  berrybestfarm on February 19 at 8:50 a.m.

  Speaking from personal experience I assure you it can be done effectively with excellent organizational skills and adaptability. It is exceptionaly helpfull to have a small group of dedicated parent volunteers. It is a reasonable way to reduce costs. Most teachers are highly professional. Who better to set the example and lead the way to working smarter not harder in order to reduce government spending?

• 

  eagleproducer on February 19 at 9:04 a.m.

  Tax avoidance is the problem, not spending.

  In Montana alone, more than 10 billion dollars will go uncollected in taxes this year, mostly to the largest companies in the world.

  But go ahead, drive the best from teaching to other, more lucrative work, and you’ll get exactly what you deserve. And from the right wing perspective, nothing could be finer: Poorly-educated people don’t ask questions. They follow along with slogans like “cut taxes” and “the gubmint is the problem.”

  The last time I drove through Montana I noticed lots of trees, mines, oil wells, wind farms and packed tourist facilities. But they are broke? Give me a break.

• 

  woamike on February 19 at 10:24 a.m.

  Yeah S-Tucky, maybe they should start with you. After all, you’re a tax avoidance braggart. In your case it’s OK though, right? After all you’re a (alleged) school teacher who “cares” and give himself a pass because of other (alleged) virtuous activity.

  Spending not a problem? Get real. We spend more and more on education, but somehow get less in return. You want to spend more on a problem that was/is NOT caused by lack of funding and will NOT be solved by throwing more money at it.

• 

  509ifyourlucky on February 19 at 1:54 p.m.

  I am all for cutting k - 12 education, Here’s why. No one person has said what an electric bill, phone bill or water bill for a school or school district offices cost is and the poor property taxpayers are stuck paying for. Misc expenses such as office equipment that the poor property taxpayers are stuck paying for. School buses and district vehicles are a big expense when you include gas, insurance and maintenance.

• 

  Ninch on February 19 at 3:00 p.m.

  Both my Catholic school and rural school cohorts experienced combined grades 1st - 6th, which apparently provided us great advantages when we all ended up at the larger public school in the next phase of our education.

  Good teachers are the ones who are able to organize for the most efficient use of learning time available. Poor teachers tend to waste time even with small monolithic classes.