For instance, many Lockwood children live in two public housing projects near the school, and more than 80 percent are eligible for free-lunch programs. It's a challenging environment to teach in. There are many bilingual kids, and there's lots of crime and violence in the community. Last year I had broken windows and there was no heat in my room. At Lockwood, scheduled renovation and the demands of class-size reduction caused loss of a library, which was converted to a classroom, and brought numerous portable classrooms to the site.
Libraries are necessary to develop life-long reading habits in children.
Even well-off schools failed to dodge the facilities bullet, the report found. But they had a science room, a computer room and a library, all converted into classrooms. Science is now a cart of test tubes that moves from room to room. Worse, the researchers project that if the California state budget takes a downturn in the future, class size might climb again, leaving schools with both crowded classrooms and permanent cuts in science facilities, computer rooms and libraries. According to the research team, most education research shows that academic achievement is not significantly affected until class size falls below 15 students, far fewer than California's target of 20 students per teacher.