No apparent relationship between class size funding allocated to schools and classes added to lower class size

December 12, 2024

The class size law requires that the DOE must provide in its annual Implementation Report “a detailed description of how contract for excellence funds contributed to achieving class size reduction in each school that received such funding including specific information on the number of classes in each school that existed prior to receiving contract for excellence funds and the number of new classes that were created in each school for each year such funding was received.”’

There is no such description of contained in its Nov. 15, 2024 report.  Instead, DOE posted a bunch of discrete spreadsheets  and separately, the number of classes by schools in their annual class size report, posted the same day.

So, we tried to do this. More specifically, we looked at the amount of funding allocated via C4E for class size reduction according to Table A of their Implementation Report, compared to the number of K12, non- self-contained classes added , as the latter classes are already smaller classes by law and are not subject to the 2022 class size reduction law.  We found no relationship between the two.  We analyzed the relationship in two different ways, and also along different scales of funding.  See the more detailed explanation and charts below.

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