Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
In September of 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a new law forcing New York City public schools to lower their class sizes by September of 2028. In large public schools, like Fort Hamilton High School, however, the administration is struggling to make this bill a reality.
The benefits of decreasing class size are what have led many schools across the United States to reduce class capacity. Having fewer students in a classroom allows the teacher to give more attention to students individually, fostering stronger relationships between teachers and their students. In fact, a study revealed that being in a smaller class allowed students to advance academically and score better on standardized tests than their counterparts who were in larger classes.
Governor Hochul’s law requires high school classes to be reduced from 34 to 25 students, with the exception of physical education classes, which will be limited to 40 students.
“Teachers will be able to give more attention to 25 than to 34 [students],” said Mr. Thomas DiBisceglie, an AP United States Government and Politics teacher at Fort Hamilton High School. “It really makes a big difference to have nine fewer students. It makes a big difference to be able to connect with a smaller number.”
Fort Hamilton High School, however, as a school with over 4,000 students and no cap on enrollment, is less than a quarter of the way to achieving this goal because of its large population.
Some staff, while eager about reduced class sizes, fear that the new policy will affect how accessible competitive classes (such as Advanced Placement courses and popular electives) and extracurricular activities will be for students.
“[Cutting down class size] is probably going to have a negative impact on AP classes,” said Mr. DiBisceglie. “That would mean fewer students that we may currently have so we then might have to create more sections.”
Mr. DiBisceglie also spoke to the impact that lower class sizes will have on extracurricular activities if the school decides to add a 4-to-11 bell schedule, extending the day in order to make time for more classes.
“I think if we end up having to play around with the time schedule in order to accommodate over 4,000 students in our school, then we might have to adjust the time, maybe to a 4 to 11 schedule, which that’s going to impact clubs and sports,” he said. “And so they would maybe miss out on some of that after-school stuff.”
Ms. Susanne Perez, a math teacher at Fort Hamilton, suggested that the school should implement a 4-to-11 bell schedule, but decrease the length of a period from 46 to 40 minutes. She recalled that in both her time as a student at Fort Hamilton High School and during her early years of teaching, each period lasted 40 minutes, and the 6 minute increase introduced in later years made little difference.
“I feel that if we were to shorten our periods back to the 40 minutes, we’ve basically gained an entire extra period within the same time frame of school hours that we have now and that allows us free reign of the building for an extra period every day, which basically, in my opinion, is the only mathematical way to ever be able to bring class sizes down,” she said.
Other staff have also come up with other plausible solutions such as implementing online classes to remove pressure from the school building.
The many different conversations regarding the decreased class size mandate continue to come together while the school deliberates what is best for its students in order to meet the goal by the 2028 deadline.
“I completely understand it’s going to be difficult for our school and for a lot of schools,” said Mr. DiBisceglie. “But if we can do it, the good should outweigh the bad.