Top-scoring Chicago public elementary schools have the largest class sizes in the city, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Low-scoring schools can afford small classes because students bring extra “poverty” dollars with them, but small classes don’t provide enough boost to help disadvantaged children catch up. In middle-class neighborhoods and at magnet schools, rising scores are attracting middle-class students who supply no extra funding. In addition, some popular schools let class sizes rise above 30 to qualify for extra money for overcrowding, which can be spent to hire aides or to add an art or music teacher.

In 2004-2005, Edgebrook’s sole first-grade room held a whopping 40 students. That year, the school posted the highest test score among the city’s neighborhood schools, yet it had the largest primary class sizes in the six-county area. At least two of its tested grades that year — third and eighth — held 30 or more students.

. . . That year, a second teacher helped part of the day in first grade. This year, even with a new mobile classroom due by January, Edgebrook’s two first-grade rooms will hold 30 and 27 kids. Older grades also are big: fourth- through eighth average 33 to 37 kids.

High-scoring schools tend to have experienced teachers and parents willing to help out in the classroom. Teacher quality trumps class size.

When California reduced class size to 20 students in K-3, middle-class suburban schools hired experienced teachers from urban schools, which had to fill new classrooms with novices, many of whom got frustrated and quit after a year. Because class-size reduction lowered teacher quality in high-poverty schools, the very expensive program had little or no benefit for the neediest students.

Via News Alert.

Unschooling — letting children pursue their own interests without classes, textbooks or adult direction — is the choice of some homeschoolers, reports the New York Times.

The Billings children are not graded. Weekends are no different from weekdays, summer from winter. They draw or read or play outside, or go on family outings to libraries, museums or the gym. They also attend activities and take lessons familiar to pupils in traditional schools like Girl Scouts, swimming for Gaby and piano — if they express an interest — but none has seen the inside of a regular classroom.

Unschooling parents believe children will learn more in the long run if they’re allowed to follow their natural curiousity. I suspect they’ll have large gaps in their knowledge.

To prove his high school social studies teacher was preaching instead of teaching, student Matthew LaClair taped him in class.

On Sept. 14 — the fourth day of class — (David) Paszkiewicz is on tape saying, “He (God) did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sin on his own body, suffered your pains for you and he’s saying, ‘Please accept me, believe me.’”

He adds, according to the tapes: “If you reject that, you belong in hell. The outcome is your prerogative. But the way I see it, God himself sent his only son to die for David Paszkiewicz on that cross … And if you reject that, then it really is to hell with you.”

Paszkiewicz didn’t limit his religious observations to personal salvation, according to the tapes.

Paszkiewicz shot down the theories of evolution and the “Big Bang” in favor of creationism. He also told his class that dinosaurs were on Noah’s ark, LaClair said.

Students are mad at LaClair for turning in the teacher.

Via Debate Link and Joe Gandelman’s Moderate Voice.

If you think take-home arts and crafts projects are a waste of time, listen to RedKudu, a high school English teacher, fulminate about the in-class projects teachers are urged to do. Take the mandala project — please.

Kids interview one another, then introduce one another, then they go through a lot of writing about their feelings, likes, dislikes, and make a little mandala on paper which reflects their personality. For three weeks they do this at the sophomore level. At the junior level, they read some poetry about houses, then make a little paper house with their own poem inside. At the senior level they learn to write their name in runes (preparation for Beowulf), and color pictures from a coloring book with illuminated letters in it.

In her first three weeks, RedKudu is teaching students to be responsible for getting their work done on time. The first week is Disbelief and Dismissal Week: Students ignore her warnings about turning in work and studying for the first quiz.

The second week is called Haggling and Hating Week. They are shocked by their grades. They are astonished that I will not grade work I cannot read, or give a completion grade for a half-completed assignment. They come to me at the beginning of class, and begin to despise me because I will not discuss their personal grade during my valuable class time, because they cannot take the time to come during tutoring hours. They haggle desperately, as if offering me the bargain of seeing them during tutoring hours. “What if I did come tomorrow morning? Then could I re-take the quiz?” No, but I would be glad to tutor you for the next one.

In week 3, Resolution and Restoration, most students understand how to meet her expectations. However, some students never make it past week 2.

The National High School Center’s evaluation of four programs to improve high schools serving low-income students offers sensible advice: Personalizing instruction by setting up small learning communities and giving students faculty mentors is helpful but not sufficient. Successful high schools both personalize and provide catch-up classes designed to help ninth graders improve their reading and math skills. Longer class periods, standard curricula and teacher collaboration focused on improving instruction — not planning the next field trip — also helps.