MCPS Redisricting - offshoot from open enrollment/busing thread

[Anonymous]

My DD goes to Wayside. 16 kids per class. It feels crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my child was in K in the RM cluster, there were 5 K classes + 1 for Chinese Immersion...28 kids in her class. 29 in grade 1. For second grade they finally added another teacher for 7 classes.

Way too many for those grades.

[Anonymous]

How is it that Wayside has the same class sizes as Title 1 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD goes to Wayside. 16 kids per class. It feels crowded.

Ha ha!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is it that Wayside has the same class sizes as Title 1 schools?

Because they are in the Churchill cluster. Read the original post and you will see how a lot (not all) of the ES in the W clusters are under capacity.

[Anonymous]

The rest of the county burns while BFES, Wayside and CSES haveessentially a 3:1 student teacher ratio.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is in a 24 child class at BFES. A fine class size, but how do you get a 3:1 ratio?? My friend's kid at Oakland Terrace (they are in a lovely home in Kensington) has 16 kids in her class. Oh, and they have other people, too. Their compacted math class has 10 people in it and a dedicated teacher- BFES definitely does not have that! Stop assuming everything is more magical in some of these schools! ALL schools follow the same rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is in a 24 child class at BFES. A fine class size, but how do you get a 3:1 ratio?? My friend's kid at Oakland Terrace (they are in a lovely home in Kensington) has 16 kids in her class. Oh, and they have other people, too. Their compacted math class has 10 people in it and a dedicated teacher- BFES definitely does not have that! Stop assuming everything is more magical in some of these schools! ALL schools follow the same rules.

Seriously. Wood Acres is in the Whitman cluster. Class size for my kids has run as high as 28-29. Right now the school is nearly 250 overcapacity with nearly 800 kids. 800! The school is so overcrowded, the kids start their lunch shifts at 10:45 and kids complain they have to hork their food down in 10 minutes to make way for the next shift. Man, the anti-W myths being spread are maddening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is in a 24 child class at BFES. A fine class size, but how do you get a 3:1 ratio?? My friend's kid at Oakland Terrace (they are in a lovely home in Kensington) has 16 kids in her class. Oh, and they have other people, too. Their compacted math class has 10 people in it and a dedicated teacher- BFES definitely does not have that! Stop assuming everything is more magical in some of these schools! ALL schools follow the same rules.

Seriously. Wood Acres is in the Whitman cluster. Class size for my kids has run as high as 28-29. Right now the school is nearly 250 overcapacity with nearly 800 kids. 800! The school is so overcrowded, the kids start their lunch shifts at 10:45 and kids complain they have to hork their food down in 10 minutes to make way for the next shift. Man, the anti-W myths being spread are maddening.

Let's change that to Wootton and Churchill cluster... most of the ESs in those clusters are under capacity.

[Anonymous]

Yup, that is true. My DS goes to Lakewood. 17 kids in each first grade class. We are hoping it gets less crowded next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that Wayside has the same class sizes as Title 1 schools?

Because they are in the Churchill cluster. Read the original post and you will see how a lot (not all) of the ES in the W clusters are under capacity.

No, that is not how it works.

"Under capacity" means that there are fewer students at the school than the school has room for. "Over capacity" means that there are more students at the school than the school has room for. UNDER/OVER CAPACITY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CLASS SIZE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rest of the county burns while BFES, Wayside and CSES haveessentially a 3:1 student teacher ratio.

Beverly Farms: student/instructional staff ratio 14.7, average kindergarten class size 20.5, average grade 1-3 class size 23.3, average grade 4-5 class size 25.9
Wayside: 10.6/20.3/25.2/24.9
Cold Spring: 13.3/17.5/20.2/23.5
Ritchie Park: 15.1/23.5/21.9/22.8

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02226.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02235.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02238.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02227.pdf

Now, what are the numbers for your school? You can find them on the second page of your school's at-a-glance report, near the top, in the box titled Class Size/Staff Ratio

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rest of the county burns while BFES, Wayside and CSES haveessentially a 3:1 student teacher ratio.

Beverly Farms: student/instructional staff ratio 14.7, average kindergarten class size 20.5, average grade 1-3 class size 23.3, average grade 4-5 class size 25.9
Wayside: 10.6/20.3/25.2/24.9
Cold Spring: 13.3/17.5/20.2/23.5
Ritchie Park: 15.1/23.5/21.9/22.8

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02226.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02235.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02238.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02227.pdf

Now, what are the numbers for your school? You can find them on the second page of your school's at-a-glance report, near the top, in the box titled Class Size/Staff Ratio

I find the ratios misleading (not just at the schools listed above but at all schools). Are they including art, music and PE and others? Those only meet once per week. Most of the time the kids are in their main classroom so that ratio is useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rest of the county burns while BFES, Wayside and CSES haveessentially a 3:1 student teacher ratio.

Beverly Farms: student/instructional staff ratio 14.7, average kindergarten class size 20.5, average grade 1-3 class size 23.3, average grade 4-5 class size 25.9
Wayside: 10.6/20.3/25.2/24.9
Cold Spring: 13.3/17.5/20.2/23.5
Ritchie Park: 15.1/23.5/21.9/22.8

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02226.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02235.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02238.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/glance/currentyear/schools/02227.pdf

Now, what are the numbers for your school? You can find them on the second page of your school's at-a-glance report, near the top, in the box titled Class Size/Staff Ratio

I find the ratios misleading (not just at the schools listed above but at all schools). Are they including art, music and PE and others? Those only meet once per week. Most of the time the kids are in their main classroom so that ratio is useless.

Art, music, and PE teachers are instructional staff, aren't they? It's the ratio of students to instructional staff, not the ratio of students to classroom teachers.

Also you can just compare the average class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is in a 24 child class at BFES. A fine class size, but how do you get a 3:1 ratio?? My friend's kid at Oakland Terrace (they are in a lovely home in Kensington) has 16 kids in her class. Oh, and they have other people, too. Their compacted math class has 10 people in it and a dedicated teacher- BFES definitely does not have that! Stop assuming everything is more magical in some of these schools! ALL schools follow the same rules.

Seriously. Wood Acres is in the Whitman cluster. Class size for my kids has run as high as 28-29. Right now the school is nearly 250 overcapacity with nearly 800 kids. 800! The school is so overcrowded, the kids start their lunch shifts at 10:45 and kids complain they have to hork their food down in 10 minutes to make way for the next shift. Man, the anti-W myths being spread are maddening.

Let's change that to Wootton and Churchill cluster... most of the ESs in those clusters are under capacity.

One thing that seems clear from this thread is that MoCo has done a horrible job of planning all over the place. These issues do not spring up overnight. The issues identified on this thread were years in the making. MCPS deserves some of the blame for its decision process regarding school construction (i.e. not making overcrowding more of a factor in deciding which schools get help when). But the county council is equally to blame. How do you encourage development and growth without planning properly for it? Seems like there needs to be better coordination between planning divisions. Unfortunately, it's too late for kids already in the system. They'll have to deal with overcrowded schools for their entire MCPS education. Hopefully the county ca can get their act together for the next generation of kids.