MCPS Kindergarten Student:Teacher ratios? Screen time?

[Anonymous]

I know this information is theoretically available online, but as far as I can tell it's inaccurate (e.g., saying there are 18 kids in a kg class in Takoma Park ES when there are 25).

Can people share what the student:teacher ratio is in their child's kindergarten class in montgomery county, and if they are generally pleased with the school?

We have a child kindergarten entering in the Fall and are trying to pin down which school district to move to. Of course, we know there are considerations beyond elementary, but we have a two year old and a five year old and are just trying to focus on the near future. We had our hearts set on Takoma Park, but then heard from friends about how large the kindergarten classes were, and how the kids were spending hours each day on screens, so hoping to avoid that.

[Anonymous]

Title 1 schools have smallest classroom size
Focus schools are next
The rest have guidelines, but no maximum numbers. I had one kid with 23 per class at the start of the year had 26 by the end. The other had 22, ended up with 27 by the end of the year

[Anonymous]

The new school data dashboard shows TPES K size as 20.1:

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZWJmMzk4MTItMjZjZS00OGYxLTlhYTAtNDM5ODFiMWI1MjhjIiwidCI6ImRkZjc1NWU5LWJjZDYtNGE1ZS1hNDcyLTdjMzc4YTc4YzZjNyIsImMiOjF9

[Anonymous]

I saw that but it also lists 11 classes and the school only has 9.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Title 1 schools have smallest classroom size
Focus schools are next
The rest have guidelines, but no maximum numbers. I had one kid with 23 per class at the start of the year had 26 by the end. The other had 22, ended up with 27 by the end of the year

Thanks! I’m interested in current ratios at any specific schools you may know of. Particularly Rockville/potomac/bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Nobody can tell you what class sizes are going to be for your Kindergartener next year. It depends on how many there are and how many class rooms they need.

[Anonymous]

There are 20 kids in my child's kindergarten class, but I'm pretty sure they have fewer students in the class due to having a large number of kids with IEPs. They've got 2-3 paraeducators in there at all times, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 20 kids in my child's kindergarten class, but I'm pretty sure they have fewer students in the class due to having a large number of kids with IEPs. They've got 2-3 paraeducators in there at all times, too.

Thanks! Would you mind sharing what school this is?

[Anonymous]

If small class sizes are important to you, you should look at the Focus schools. They are not as impacted by poverty as Title I schools, but have smaller class sizes than the rest of the schools, especially in K-2. They are listed on the third page here:

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP25_Chapter3.pdf

[Anonymous]

Focus schools in Rockville cluster:
Barnsley
Maryvale
Meadow Hall

There are no Focus schools in Potomac or Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

For non focus schools, it all depends on the particular cohort within a given year. Once they reach 25 or 26 kids I believe they start a new class. This resulted in kindergarten classes at our ES having 17 kids last year and 24 this year. Same school. We were all hoping for just two more kids to register to enable the district to let them open up another class, but they did not get the numbers so could not. So you can't pick a school based on class size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For non focus schools, it all depends on the particular cohort within a given year. Once they reach 25 or 26 kids I believe they start a new class. This resulted in kindergarten classes at our ES having 17 kids last year and 24 this year. Same school. We were all hoping for just two more kids to register to enable the district to let them open up another class, but they did not get the numbers so could not. So you can't pick a school based on class size.

Thanks this is super helpful! And just to clarify - there was one teacher for both the batch of 17 and 24 or a para as well?

[Anonymous]

Only one teacher both batches. There is sometimes a para that comes in to help a SN kid, but they are generally focused on that kid.

[Anonymous]

OP - asking for specific schools this year isn’t going to help you much. Things can swing quite a bit. Let’s say the mandated max is 25 kids per class. If the school this year had 51 kindergartners, they’d have 3 classes of 17 kids per class. If next year there are 50 kids, you’d have 2 classes of 25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - asking for specific schools this year isn’t going to help you much. Things can swing quite a bit. Let’s say the mandated max is 25 kids per class. If the school this year had 51 kindergartners, they’d have 3 classes of 17 kids per class. If next year there are 50 kids, you’d have 2 classes of 25.

Yep makes sense and is very helpful! Anyone have strong feelings one way or the other on how much screens their kids are getting in school?