Score well and get penalized
by Bruce Haire

Score well

School is back in and the McGuinty government is boasting about its initiative to reduce primary class sizes to an average of 20.

Certainly it is a laudatory goal. The Premier said last week that: "We know that kids in smaller classes in the early years get more individual attention and are more likely to reach their full potential."

In fact, the Ministry of Education earlier this summer sent out a press release boasting about the numbers and inviting us to go on line to check your board or your schools' numbers.

Probably, few did but I checked. One of the reasons I checked was because I know that my grandson has been in very large classes, certainly nowhere near 20.

I then went on line and checked all around the public school board in Simcoe County.

It seems that those schools that do well in the Grade 3 testing results have been penalized with no extra help and large class sizes in the primary grades while those that don't do well have much smaller class sizes.

For instance, a check of Shanty Bay, the number one performing school in the last grade 3 results, shows primary class sizes of 22 to 24 or in the top 4 to 2 percent of class sizes in the board.

Slip down to Tecumseth South (the number two performing school and my grandson's school), and you find class sizes of 24 or the top 2 percent.

Then take a look at schools that have not been doing very well in the grade 3 testing and you find dramatically different class sizes.

For instance, Innisfil schools for many years have not been doing well in the testing but have been scoring better lately. There you find classes of, for instance, Killarney Beach with classes of 17 to 18 and Alcona Glen with class sizes as low as 15.

The message is getting out folks to teachers. Don't help your students do too well on the Grade 3 testing or you will get shafted in terms of class sizes.

That's what the Simcoe County public school results show. The better you do, the bigger your class size will be.

It's a strange type of logic. Have your grade 3 class perform poorly, and your entire primary division will benefit in future years with lower class sizes.

Keep performing well, and you may never see that provincial goal of 20 in a class because that is a goal for only 90% of the classes in the province.

Work to be a good school, and have your class do well in the Grade 3 testing and you will certainly get loaded up with students or get additional help later than anyone else.