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SAGE is much more than a program that reduces K-3 classes to 15 students. Integral, indeed required, components of SAGE include parental involvement, on-going student assessment, high academic standards, and staff development opportunities to ensure that teachers are using the best methods in the classroom. For four successive years, SAGE has received glowing academic evaluations from UW-Milwaukee researchers, who observed orderly classrooms and widespread one on one attention to students by teachers.
"Last year I had a student that came in at a
pre-kindergarten reading level. If I had a class of 20 or more students,
there's no way I would have been able to help that student catch
up."
-- Maria Dyslin, 2nd grade teacher at Mendota Elementary.
Today, the student is reading at a third grade level.
The Madison Board of Education and district staff spent months engaging the community to redraw elementary school boundary lines, done in large part to accommodate the expansion of SAGE. The district has combined state, federal and nearly $1 million in local funds to expand SAGE from four schools in 1999-00 to a planned 23 of its 30 elementary schools for 2001-02. Approximately one-third of the total MMSD population is low-income. The current plan will provide SAGE classes for 75 percent of the district's K-3 students, which includes 91 percent of its low-income students. Under the Governor's proposal, only 15 percent of the district's K-3 students would benefit from SAGE and only about 25 percent of its low-income students.
The Governor's proposal only assists schools where there are high concentrations of poverty. If the Governor's proposal passes, Madison would need to spend $2 million out of its budget to hire the 34 teachers needed to maintain small classes at the current SAGE schools. Under revenue limits, the district is allowed to increase its budget by about 2.4 percent. Last year over $1 million was cut from the district's budget, eliminating several administrative positions and staff development resources, along with other moves. This year, program cuts affecting the classroom are likely. Reallocating resources is simply not possible.
One of the primary goals of SAGE - and a core goal of the Madison school district -- is that children leaving third grade are reading at or above the standard on the state's Third Grade Reading Test. Low-income students in Madison who will benefit from SAGE are the very students who are most at risk for not becoming proficient readers. The Governor's proposal seriously jeopardizes the prospects for the overwhelming majority of the district's low-income students.
Schools signed five-year, K-3 SAGE contracts. The state should keep its commitment and fund SAGE so the schools currently in the program have the resources necessary to include 2nd and 3rd grade.