32 kids in my child’s lower elementary class?

[Anonymous]

It’s a well regarded elementary—is this normal? They have one teacher and one aide.

[Anonymous]

It's way higher than normal, but I think it's allowed technically if you have an aide.

It may come down a bit as waitlists move, and also bear in mind that some of the kids on the roster may not spend the entire day with the class. I.e. they may Be in a special needs classroom but rostered because they join for certain subjects, lunch, recess, etc.

[Anonymous]

Yeah. Too many. We had 27 last year in K in a high needs school and it was not good. 20 this year as we are now a focus school and more $ for a teacher allocated earlier in the year.

[Anonymous]

32 with an aide? Yes that's big, but I taught kindergarten with 33 and no aide one year. It wasn't easy but the kids were amazing. Most were reading by year's end. I run a tight ship, tho. I think your kid will be fine since there are two adults

[Anonymous]

Is it a Montessori classroom?

[Anonymous]

This is highly unusual. What size are the other classes in the grade ?

[Anonymous]

That's definitely high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a well regarded elementary—is this normal? They have one teacher and one aide.

Janney has had the large grade more than once - the administration tries to tell the parents how awesome their kids are and that it will be fine.
Disaster

[Anonymous]

Why not name the school? It’s more of a surprise at some than others

[Anonymous]

They need to add a class.

[Anonymous]

Our school got to 28 for one class last year and DCPS turned down our appeal to add another class. LSAT rejiggered things to add one for this year.

Is the 32 an unexpected anomaly driven by neighborhood growth? Not a ton the school can do mid-year unless DCPS gives them an exception. Do they have only 1 class? If so, I can see it happening because DCPS won't give an exception to create 16 kid classes (and the school might not want to take the OOB kids DCPS would require next year anyway). If there's more than 1 class, it makes no sense because the kids could be split into classes over 20 which is usually DCPS' line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school got to 28 for one class last year and DCPS turned down our appeal to add another class. LSAT rejiggered things to add one for this year.

Is the 32 an unexpected anomaly driven by neighborhood growth? Not a ton the school can do mid-year unless DCPS gives them an exception. Do they have only 1 class? If so, I can see it happening because DCPS won't give an exception to create 16 kid classes (and the school might not want to take the OOB kids DCPS would require next year anyway). If there's more than 1 class, it makes no sense because the kids could be split into classes over 20 which is usually DCPS' line.

Unless they don't have another classroom space? I could see this potentially being an issue at a "well regarded" school.

Our school unexpectedly had a big K cohort. They didn't add a classroom that year but did the following year.

[Anonymous]

Is this Ross? Great school but may be hard to add a class because of the small footprint. Maybe they can add a teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a well regarded elementary—is this normal? They have one teacher and one aide.

Janney has had the large grade more than once - the administration tries to tell the parents how awesome their kids are and that it will be fine.
Disaster

Janney is a disaster that's been resting on its laurels for many years. There are some great teachers there that make it work and some not so great ones that make it worse. Between our kids there were 3 years where we had 27+ kids to a class and it was completely insane. We were glad we were able to get out. I realize not everyone has that option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a well regarded elementary—is this normal? They have one teacher and one aide.

Janney has had the large grade more than once - the administration tries to tell the parents how awesome their kids are and that it will be fine.
Disaster

Janney is a disaster that's been resting on its laurels for many years. There are some great teachers there that make it work and some not so great ones that make it worse. Between our kids there were 3 years where we had 27+ kids to a class and it was completely insane. We were glad we were able to get out. I realize not everyone has that option.

I’m surprised to hear this as we have had a great experience at Janney, and our kids have never had classes that large. I remember hearing about an unusually large grade cohort that was a few years before we got there, which may explain the 27+ kids to a class.