Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
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Anonymous
| I looked back at my own K class photo and we had 28 kids. It was half day but I am sure she had just as many in the morning. My son's school has 24 kids in a class (magnet school) and my Title One school has around 25-27 kids in each K class with a floating assistant. |
Anonymous
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There are a lot of studies that show class size isn't as important as the teacher's ability. My DS had 28 kids in K and I was aghast. However, his teacher (only her second year teaching) was AMAZING. The class size was not a problem.
By third grade, 29 kids in the class was catastrophic. We switched to private with 12-15 kids in the class. It was much better. A great teacher can handle the large classes. But, great teachers are not necessarily the norm. |
Anonymous
| I agree with PP. I would much prefer a fananstic teacher then a small class. MY DD had 29 in grade one but we all agree it was the best year ever for her. Unfortunately with public you can't predict the class size as it can go up or down by the year. For second grade they added another class to DD year and the class size dropped considerably. |
Anonymous
yep - and both my kids had 25-26 kids per class with experienced classroom teachers, and I always felt that the teacher was available to us as parents and managed their classrooms extremely well. Class size is not the most important thing. It is only one proxy for making your decision. |
Anonymous
| Ours has 25 and one teacher. There is an aide who is shared between several K classes. |
Anonymous
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Focus and Title 1 school have less than 20 students for grades K-2.
Rosemary Hills is not either but I have heard great things from parents. |
Anonymous
In kindergarten? |
Anonymous
| We had 25 kids, no aides. Now up to 27 kids. So f'ing pissed off I didn't do private. My daughter had 33 in her 3rd grade math class. DISASTER!!! |
Anonymous
| Kinder teacher here, each year my class runs between 22-24 consistently. I have taught k for 10 years and agree with a pp, a skilled teacher can handle this class size. Yes, in a perfect world our classes would be less than 20, but until that happens, teachers are used to the class size. I can also tell you that, while I don't work at RHPS, I have worked with several of them through various mcps programs. The kindergarten teachers at that school have amazing reputations among both the Bethesda/Chevy chase parents and the mcps community at large. They are among the best out there, I wish I could afford a house in the area so my child could have one of them! |
Anonymous
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Teacher to student ratios in each grade are set at the county level. My understanding is there are 3 levels (these are for typical classrooms, I have no idea what learning center classroom ratios are).
Title 1 Focus School Everybody else If you call the school you are interested in, they can tell if they are title 1 or a focus school (and qualify for lower class sizes). |
Anonymous
| Our school has 16-17 students and 1 teacher. Two of the K classes have an aid because there are children in the class with special needs. This is a Maryland Focus School, not title I. |
Anonymous
| DS has 17, plus an aide (b/c of a child with special needs). |
Anonymous
Oh - had this post only been written when we started pondering this question and decided to go private rather than deal with the large RHPS classes. We start a private K next year and will always wonder if I'm throwing that $$ down the proverbial drain. Nice to hear the bit about the teachers - that was the biggest concern. |
Anonymous
| If you are not sure start in public..if it doesn't work for you move on and know your $$ is well spent on private. If it does work out enjoy spending the extra $$ on other enrichments/travel/college. |
Anonymous
| DD is one of 16 in her K class (focus school). |