A panel of educators and government officials is starting with the general and working to the specific in trying to determine what constitutes an adequate education at North Dakota's K-12 schools.

Getting to the meat of its task after preliminary meetings, the Governor's Commission on Education Improvement met Thursday to hear the results of a study outlining what a prototypical school should provide its students.

"Dramatically improving student performance is the goal, and they think they can show us how to do that," said Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

Dalrymple is leading the panel, which has been charged with making recommendations to the 2009 Legislature on how school funding can be improved to improve educational opportunities across the state. It is the same panel that hatched the plan to alter the school funding formula to achieve a more equal distribution of state aid to schools.

A version of that plan passed the 2007 Legislature and was hailed as one of the marquee accomplishments of the session.

Lawmakers are almost a year away from diving headfirst into the adequacy portion, in which time the panel will be preparing its recommendations on reform in that area.

Thursday's study - a starting point for the discussion -recommended a ratio of 15 students to one teacher in kindergarten through third grade and a ratio of 25 students to one teacher in later grades.

Professor Allan Odden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison told the panel that smaller class sizes in early grades have a statistically significant impact on student learning and an especially large impact on poor and minority students.

Odden also recommended using a district's ratio of free lunch eligible students to target limited state aid to struggling students. This is better than using test scores to direct this aid because it doesn't punish schools for raising their scores or take away funds that schools might need to maintain those higher test scores once they get there, he said.

Finally, Odden suggested increased coaching and training for teachers. Most schools in other states that have doubled performance have done this, he said.

In the coming months, Odden will be presenting results tailored to North Dakota. For example, he will be looking for schools that doubled performance in this state to see how their actions can be repeated.

The committee will be looking to make its own recommendations, using the consultants' study as a model.

"There is a great latitude on the state's part in modifying these recommendations substantially," Odden said.

Dalrymple said the final recommendations likely will be some combination of the consultants' template and what fits with the specific conditions of both North Dakota districts and the state's new funding formula.

"They've given us something to work with," he said.

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@bismarcktribune.com.)