DCPS Teacher Ratio
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Anonymous
| Is there a DCPS mandated maximum teacher to student ratio? I know there is one for pre-K3 and pre-K4 but does it continue beyond that? My DS is in a kindergarten classroom with over 20 students and just one teacher which seems unreasonable and untenable. |
Anonymous
| This is exactly why we went private. We are zoned to one of the "best" public schools, and my neighbor told me her son had 26 kids and 1 teacher in his kindergarten class (years ago now). We never tried public because of that. My 8th grader has about 10 kids in her classes and one teacher. My 2nd grader has 18 students, 2 teachers. There are also 2 floating assistants (one reading, one math) that help 1st through 3rd. |
Anonymous
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We are at a Title 1 in DCPS and they have stricter guidelines about class size. They won't put more than 20 or 21 in a K classroom, and even with that many, they would assign an aide.
But they get extra money for teachers due to Title 1 status. My understanding is that some of the most sought-after non-Title 1 schools in DC are overcrowded, so even if you have money for more teachers, you may not have enough classrooms for all IB kids who are entitled to enroll if you want to keep class size down. |
Anonymous
| According to our contract, one elementary general education teacher should not have more than 25 students in the class, but if there are more than that he/she gets paid extra. Kindergarten should have an aide. Usually the number of teachers is determined during the previous year's budget process but sometimes if a grade is unexpectedly overenrolled, the school will get an extra teacher as a 'gift'. |
Anonymous
So it’s a guideline but not a rule? They have 25 with a teacher and an aide, and it sounds like mayhem. There were three classrooms last year but the school pushed one teacher to 1st grade because to make a third room there. |
Anonymous
| When DCPS is evaluating school capacity, 22 is its target number for K+ classrooms. |
Anonymous
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Frankly OP, 20 is low for DCPS Kindergarten. An average or good K teacher would be able to handle 20 if there are no special circumstances going on. Ideally K would have an aide, but sometimes they have trouble hiring enough aides, or paying for them. A class size of 20 kids in K is very unlikely to be on your principal's list of top 10 problems.
It may be that your teacher is not skilled at classroom control. Or if you have a kid who needs an IEP and doesn't have one yet-- it takes a little while to get that going, and K usually has some kids who haven't been in a school environment before or haven't had any special needs addressed yet. If you feel the classroom environment is not what it should be, bring it up with your teacher and assistant principal. There is a recommended class size in the WTU contract, but there's also a long list of permissible exceptions. |
Anonymous
is "over 20" closer to 21 or 29? |
Anonymous
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We're at a Title 1 school and I'll also note that class size in September often doesn't reflect the true class size day-to-day at our school. Because there are some families that really struggle with attendance, a class of 23 or 24 might actually have an average size of 18 or 19 during the year. Sad but true. The school obviously takes into account how likely some kids are to show up, even with all the efforts they put in to address attendance issues, and are careful to balance this when assigning classes (otherwise you could wind up with a class of 20 that is actually 10 with all the absenteeism, plus another class of 22 that is actually a class of 22).
Also, my child has been in larger classes that had several kids with IEPs requiring a lot of pull out therapies (as opposed to push in). This results in a calmer classroom than you expect because the highest needs kids are absent from the classroom for several hours a day. It can still be chaotic at certain times, but usually not during stuff like small group work, when it is most important for kids to have a calm learning environment. My sense after several years at a school like this is that our administration is pretty thoughtful about how they assign classes and often understand some of the nuances that will contribute to class environment throughout the year. The teachers, most of whom are 10+ year veterans, also get it. I have several times thought a class was too big only to realize later that it's totally fine and in some cases that my kid benefited from being in the larger classroom. |
Anonymous
29 would be very rare in DCPS. I think you only see classrooms over 25 in some of the overcrowded upper NW schools where they also tend to have more money for aides and higher test scores overall (so people are more willing to accept the crowding because they like other things about the schools). |
Anonymous
This. 29 could happen if an unexpectedly large number of IB kids show up at the beginning of the year, or if a teacher is suddenly unavailable so they have to have fewer classrooms than planned. The first scenario happened in my DD's class, and the principal tried to supplement with floater aides and assured us the numbers would likely come down. After the first few weeks it was at 25. |
Anonymous
| Our Title I elementary school has two teachers per classroom -- I think in all grades. It's amazing. |
Anonymous
In all grades? Please name this unicorn school. |
Anonymous
This is not an accurate statement. Your upper NW schools are not special 🙄 I have taught at a “less desirable” school where some classes were 28-32 kids.. And just to be clear it is the union that ensures this isn’t the norm. So when teachers ask for support with their new contract, this is the type of thing you want to be paying attention to and pushing for. |
Anonymous
You have taught in a DCPS w/ 32 kids in a class? I call BS. |