Funding to reduce class sizes has failed, Alberta government report says

The Alberta government says previous governments have thrown away billions of dollars in targeted funding that has done little to nothing to reduce class sizes.

"What we're hearing from school boards is that, as a whole, this has not met its objective and that we have continued to throw ever increasing dollars — $291 million alone last year — and we have not moved the needle at all in terms of addressing the class size issue," Education Minister Adriana LaGrange told reporters Friday.

"So what I'm looking to do is to gather in education partners and talk about the complexities of the classroom and how we can address those in a more tangible way."

• Concerned about class sizes? Look up how packed your kid's school is compared to others in Calgary
• Class sizes swell across Calgary as enrolment rises 2,000 students year over year

According to a report released Friday, over the past 15 years Alberta has invested more than $3.4 billion in a class size initiative.

Kindergarten to Grade 3 class sizes have decreased on average by 1.4 students in that time period, the report said. In the last school year, 89 per cent of those classrooms did not meet the 17-student target set by the Alberta's Commission on Learning (ACL). 

The report recommends rolling the money into base funding, which is allocated for instructional costs such as teachers salaries and classroom materials.

"The report also highlights that, in general, school authorities across the province view our class size funding model as ineffective," LaGrange said. "School authorities have told me they would like more flexibility in how they spend the dollars they receive from the province, as they know best the needs of their specific students and their communities."

Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said Edmonton Public supports moving the class-size funding into base allocation.

"It would give us as a board more flexibility to use that funding where we think it needs to be used," Estabrooks said,

"We know that a quarter of our students are ELL students. We have a number of students who have complex learning needs. We know that smaller class sizes really makes a difference in some of the younger grades. So if we can take that money and target it towards where we know it will be best used, that is a huge benefit for us at Edmonton Public."

Alberta Teachers Association spokesperson Jonathan Teghtmeyer questioned the motive behind the report.

"This is not an audit. This is really a political position paper," Teghtmeyer said. "I'm worried that this report is a signal that the government is abandoning efforts to ensure that class sizes are returned to more manageable levels."

Teghtmeyer said the research is conclusive when it comes to the difference smaller classes have, particularly on students in younger grades.

"The report does speak to this, particularly for those students who are already vulnerable, those with a lower family income, immigrant students, ESL students other special needs," Teghtmeyer said. "So you know we know and the research shows that class size reductions do matter and government needs to continue to make them a priority."

Reporting requirements removed

The problem can be traced back to the removal of reporting requirements about where money is spent, said Joel French, executive director of Public Interest Alberta.

"Once the accountability from school boards for the funding was removed, it was sometimes no longer used for that purpose, but appears to have been used to address other serious challenges in the classroom related to children with complex needs," French wrote in a news release, adding sufficient funds are needed to address both challenges.  

The audit was part of the UCP government's election platform promise to determine what happened to previous funding dedicated to class size reduction.

The report notes that while some literature outlines the benefits of small class sizes, other studies question the effectiveness and recommend evaluating other cost-effective strategies to improve education standards, such as classroom complexity and teacher quality.

But the report also showed that average class sizes in Alberta for grades 4 and up were under the ACL guidelines.

For instance, the average classroom size seen in grades four to six was 22.8 students between 2017 and 2019 compared to the target of 23. For grades seven to nine in that same time period the average class size was 23.5 students, compared to a target of 25. And for grades 10 to 12 the average size was 23.5, while the guideline was 27.

The report did not say how big classes would have been without the funding.

LaGrange said there will be no cuts to education when the budget is unveiled next Thursday.

A new model is expected to be in place for the 2020-21 school year.