Online class size reports ‘very disappointing’

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This article was published 10/12/2024 (327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 200 classrooms in Winnipeg public schools don’t meet the provincial target for teacher-to-student ratios in kindergarten through Grade 3, and that number is likely far higher due to incomplete data.

As of the end of November, all city school divisions had published online dashboards in line with the provincial directive to make class size averages available to the public.

The Kinew government asked divisions to meet a 1:20 ratio for all K-3 classes in 2024-25. Grade 4 to 8 class sizes have more leeway, with the goal of 1:25.

Where those ratios were not met, school leaders were asked to devise a plan to bolster support for children — be it via reassigning educational assistants, introducing rotational teachers or otherwise — and submit it to the province before Nov. 30.

From a divisionwide standpoint, River East Transcona, Seven Oaks and Winnipeg are meeting or come under the targets for both groups.

Louis Riel and St. James-Assiniboia K-3 averages are slightly higher, at 20.3 and 20.2. Pembina Trails is an outlier with an average of 21.3 students in K-3 classes and 25.4 in the older elementary grades.

Cameron Hauseman, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba with expertise in educational governance, called the rollout of new dashboards and their utility “very disappointing.”

Hauseman noted the NDP initiative sought to make divisions more accountable to the public, but some are releasing high-level information and there is little consistency among the datasets.

The Winnipeg School Division has launched an interactive hub that breaks down Sept. 30 enrolment at each school by grade with an option to review immersion-specific statistics.

River East Transcona, the second largest in the province after WSD, has posted a PDF with Oct. 3 data. Others refresh their websites with real-time data.

“The fact that they’ve just let their divisions run rampant and left them to their own devices in this regard (has) created a bit of a transparency sinkhole.”–Assoc. prof. Cameron Hauseman

Given class sizes affect student outcomes, public reporting is valuable because parents can take ratios into account when enrolling children, and teachers can use it when job hunting, Hauseman said.

The researcher said it can also help inform and explain decisions about changes to catchments and division boundaries.

“In the event that class sizes are being seen to grow beyond (ratios), it could result in important conversations related to space in schools and/or the availability of teachers and (education assistants),” Sandy Nemeth, president of the Manitoba School Boards Association, said in an email.

Along with sharing the annual school funding announcement in February, Education Minister Nello Altomare said divisions were to begin reporting publicly on average class sizes this fall.

At the time, Altomare – who has been on medical leave for the last two months – said his vision was for all divisions to run similar dashboards to the one operated by the Louis Riel School Division.

The St. Vital board is known for its extensive data collection and reporting. Its online class size tracker, which is updated at the end of every school day, allows users to sort through building-level data and grade-specific averages at each site.

As of Monday, the tracker shows 14 of LRSD’s 33 buildings with early and middle years programming have average ratios that surpass provincial targets.

“The number only tells one part of the story.”–Nathan Martindale

Lavallee School has the lowest K-3 average with 17 students. École Sage Creek School is home to the division’s highest average – 22.9 pupils in those grades.

Nemeth, a longtime trustee in LRSD, said some divisions would need additional technological or staff capacity to implement detailed dashboards.

Superintendents and trustees were sent a reporting template on Sept. 23, and asked to make data public on their respective websites by the end of November.

Hauseman said leaders appear to need more direction so there can be apple-to-apple comparisons.

“The province has an obligation to step up and show some leadership in regards to transparency,” he said, noting that both Ontario and B.C. have impressively detailed reporting requirements in contrast to Manitoba.

“It’s what they ran on as part of their policy platform, as part of their election campaign – and the fact that they’ve just let their divisions run rampant and left them to their own devices in this regard (has) created a bit of a transparency sinkhole.”

The leader of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society welcomed the public datasets and their potential to be used by members to advocate for fair working conditions.

However, union president Nathan Martindale suggested classroom composition is just as important as class size.

“The number only tells one part of the story… More often than not, students in any given classroom are presenting with a lot more challenges and needs than in previous years,” Martindale said.

In a statement, Tracy Schmidt, acting minister of education, said the data reporting is “a first step” to help her office better understand where there are larger class sizes so officials can work with divisions to reduce them. The NDP noted that the previous Progressive Conservative government scrapped legislation requiring K-3 classes be capped at 20 students in 2017.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca