SUMMARY

From the article i found out that the East Bay school districts are finally taking a look at reducing their bloated class sizes after five years of brutal cuts and this is because less money forced school districts to cut staff so class sizes grew and individual students got less attention.

The new funding based incentives coming from Sacramento are budgeting for more teachers which they hope will bring down class sizes and improve the education of bay area children.The largest class sizes to be found in the region are in Union City where schools had an average of 34 students per class district wide for the 2011-12 school year, the latest numbers available from the California Department of Education. School officials there estimate that high school classes in Union City this year will average 37 students.Districts with high class sizes will now be able to take advantage of a new state education funding formula offering economic incentives to lower class sizes to 24 students over several years in kindergarten through third grade.

The new funding formula backs up decades of research showing a direct connection between lower class sizes and better education, especially kids in kindergarten through the third grade, and it benefits minority kids the most.It also said that to lower average class size district wide by one student, say from 30 to 29, it would cost $1 million a year in new teacher pay, but that's not likely to happen soon. The district probably will focus on lowering class sizes in kindergarten through the third grade where it matters most.

The article also showed a connection between lower class sizes and better education, and concluded increases in learning were about twice for minority students in smaller classes which simply means smaller class sizes result in more time with the teacher for each student.Finally it also stated that instead of cutting budgets and laying off teachers, districts are now looking at hiring more teachers and budgeting for a bit more money and that means extra teachers for hire.