Teachers- How are classroom assignments conducted? PTA involved?

[Anonymous]

Is the PTA part of this process? How in advanced are assignment made? Thanks

[Anonymous]

The PTA is absolutely not involved where I work (MCPS). Assignments aren't final until a few days before school starts. Decisions are based on evenly splitting boys/girls, keeping racial demographics in mind, and making sure that the classes are as evenly mixed as possible from an academic standpoint.

[Anonymous]

OP-are you kidding me???? The process is challenging just for the teaching team. There is NO WAY we would let any parents be at the table. You have NO IDEA how challenging it is to put groups together.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine that the PTA would be involved in this decision in any school district. MCPS parent here. In my experience, SN assignments are often finalized before the end of the previous school year. Just about every year, I am informed of my sons placement for the following school year before the end of the current one.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PTA president at a public school in VA and I can assure you the PTA has nothing to do with classroom assignments.

[Anonymous]

Good to know. At our school, there is always hushed talk about the PTA President being able to get certain kids in the "good" classes. Glad to know that's most likely untrue.

[Anonymous]

I'm a principal in FCPS, and I can assure you that the PTA is not involved in class assignments. Any parent can share information that they would like taken into consideration, but no specific teacher requests can be made at our school. This is something that I do with teachers at the end of the school year. We build classes and only code them as A, B, C etc. I make the actual teacher assignments to the classes this coming week.

[Anonymous]

No way is the pta involved. But fwiw, even some schools that officially have a no-teacher-requests policy still take them. The unfortunate truth.

[Anonymous]

If the PTA is involved the school has other issues. I can't imagine a system where they would be. I know our school offered us a time frame where we could write a note to the principal detailing any specific issues or chararacteristics of difficulties (including other children) we thought they should consider when placing our child, but not who we wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PTA president at a public school in VA and I can assure you the PTA has nothing to do with classroom assignments.

officially that is.

[Anonymous]

So there is no science to it? Just enie, meanie, minee, mo? or by personality? Do each teacher from a pervious year make a recommendation for a child from a previous year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the PTA part of this process? How in advanced are assignment made? Thanks

The PTA?

LOL! Why would parents become involved in this school-based decision?

[Anonymous]

There was a post on this recently which explained the method at some schools. The PTA has other things to do over the summer but this job is not one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a post on this recently which explained the method at some schools. The PTA has other things to do over the summer but this job is not one of them.

PP, can you share the link to that post? I searched for it, but too much came up. I'd love to see that thread.

[Anonymous]

There is no official role, but the PTA president or other influential adults in some schools can make requests for their own children (unofficially, of course), and that might include asking for certain other children to be in the class - or not be in the class - with their child. A friend of mine is PTA president and sits down with the principal and chooses all her children's teachers every year. In my opinion it's reasonable as long as the request has no negative effect on another child. I'm sorry to say at the school where I worked such requests sometimes did have negative effects on other children, who were pushed out of classes they should have been in because of a parent request from a more influential parent.