Spectator’s Ray Katz reports on the latest news from the Department of Education on class size this school year

This past Friday, the New York City Department of Education released preliminary 2009-2010 information on the often controversial issue of class size. Posted on its Web site are the citywide statistics, as well as numbers for each borough, district, and individual school.

While a third of the city’s schools experienced a decrease in class size for 2009-2010, classrooms have generally become more crowded this year. Half of the remaining two-thirds of schools have experienced class-size increases of over 5 percent.

Some education advocates say that the situation is getting critical this year.

And in light of this year’s significant budget cuts, according to information on the DOE’s site, schools were “urged to minimize cuts to instructional program and, specifically, teachers,” a policy that “successfully mitigated an excessive rise in class sizes.”

But the report also warns of continuing budget cuts in coming years—reductions in funding that will lessen schools’ ability to prevent classrooms from overcrowding in the future.

Citywide, the average number of students per general education class are as follows: 22.2 for grades K-3, 24.6 for grades 4-5, 26.8 for grades 6-8, and 27.1 for grades 9-12. In Districts 3 and 5, which include West Harlem, the number of students in the average first grade general education class is similar to the citywide average of 21—20.4 in District 5 and 21.2 in District 3.

Final data, according to the DOE site, will be available at the end of January.