3rd Grade Class Size

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Greenwood?

That's the scenario at Greenwood for our 3rd grader. It's disappointing since we've enjoyed small class sizes at Greenwood for the last decade.

The demographics of that area have been changing. Do you think this is contributing?

This has happened at our neighborhood ES for the past five years. The newer families have multiple kids, or sometimes have two families living together in one home.

I haven't noticed a change in demographics. FARMs is 8%, which seems low. I think original owners are moving out and young families are moving in. It's a school that has enjoyed a good reputation largely based on demographics and small class size because test scores aren't great.

[Anonymous]

Focus school. 22. Biggest third grade class.

[Anonymous]

That seems big. We have 22 in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We aren't at Greenwood.

I went back and counted more carefully -- one class at 28 and three at 27. This is a school that is used to big classes and the teacher with 28 is very good, but as a PP pointed out, that gives her a lot of reading/math groups to manage! Plus, I have an easy going kid who can fade into the background pretty easily.

My older kid had a class of 30 by the end of 5th grade a few years ago. Even with an experienced, talented teacher, this is just too big.

[Anonymous]

Number of kids isn’ particularly meaningful by itself. Is there an aide? Is the teacher effective? How are the kids - a bunch of trouble makers? Those answers matter more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Number of kids isn’ particularly meaningful by itself. Is there an aide? Is the teacher effective? How are the kids - a bunch of trouble makers? Those answers matter more.

This is MCPS, so there are no aides. I know many of the kids, but not all. I can see one troublemaker; DC saw three. We'll see. There obviously isn't anything I can do about it, but it just frustrates me that MCPS made this whole verbal effort to reduce class sizes ad we haven't seen any of it. Either that or we need 5 more kids to get another classroom teacher!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Number of kids isn’ particularly meaningful by itself. Is there an aide? Is the teacher effective? How are the kids - a bunch of trouble makers? Those answers matter more.

Where do you live?

Aides? This is MCPS. There are no aides. One teacher per classroom. Even in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We aren't at Greenwood.

I went back and counted more carefully -- one class at 28 and three at 27. This is a school that is used to big classes and the teacher with 28 is very good, but as a PP pointed out, that gives her a lot of reading/math groups to manage! Plus, I have an easy going kid who can fade into the background pretty easily.

My older kid had a class of 30 by the end of 5th grade a few years ago. Even with an experienced, talented teacher, this is just too big.

Our DS’ ES classroom has 28 kids. No joke, it was five different reading groups. Honestly, I would have preferred that they combine some of the ‘closer’ groups instead of how they did it. I appreciate the fact that they were aiming for letting the kids work to their potential, but the poor teacher read one chapter book with one group and then read that same chapter book a few weeks later when the next group got to that level.

Also, if your kid is a strong reader and reading anywhere above grade level, there will be a lot of ‘read to self’ time because the teacher has no choice but to work with the kids who are behind.

[Anonymous]

Yeah that sucks, my kid had big classes like that. Luckily her third grade class was only 22. Hoping this year is smaller too.

[Anonymous]

This is why private school exists. It’s free. You get what you pay for, especially if you’re a renter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why private school exists. It’s free. You get what you pay for, especially if you’re a renter.

Not all public districts have such large class sizes! MCPS decides how large to make classes. It could cap the class sizes to be smaller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why private school exists. It’s free. You get what you pay for, especially if you’re a renter.

Not all public districts have such large class sizes! MCPS decides how large to make classes. It could cap the class sizes to be smaller.

LOL!!!!! MCPS could also decide to give every parent a free mortgage payment on their house. Smaller class sizes cost MONEY. If they don’t have the space or the money to pay teachers, they can’t cap sh1t. If you are rolling around with all this cash, go private or move. Otherwise be appreciative your kid has an option at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why private school exists. It’s free. You get what you pay for, especially if you’re a renter.

Not all public districts have such large class sizes! MCPS decides how large to make classes. It could cap the class sizes to be smaller.

LOL!!!!! MCPS could also decide to give every parent a free mortgage payment on their house. Smaller class sizes cost MONEY. If they don’t have the space or the money to pay teachers, they can’t cap sh1t. If you are rolling around with all this cash, go private or move. Otherwise be appreciative your kid has an option at all.

??

Your post makes zero sense. Be appreciative that my kid has what option? We can’t afford private. My kid has no other options. Most middle class families in this area aren’t rolling around in ‘all this cash’.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why private school exists. It’s free. You get what you pay for, especially if you’re a renter.

Not all public districts have such large class sizes! MCPS decides how large to make classes. It could cap the class sizes to be smaller.

LOL!!!!! MCPS could also decide to give every parent a free mortgage payment on their house. Smaller class sizes cost MONEY. If they don’t have the space or the money to pay teachers, they can’t cap sh1t. If you are rolling around with all this cash, go private or move. Otherwise be appreciative your kid has an option at all.

??

Your post makes zero sense. Be appreciative that my kid has what option? We can’t afford private. My kid has no other options. Most middle class families in this area aren’t rolling around in ‘all this cash’.

You could afford private but you probably bought a house for $800k+ and are screaming poverty. We are not high income and bought the cheapest house we could find (under $400K) and could afford a small private for a few years till our child aged out. It was about $12K a year which is the same as day care. Catholics are about that price too. Or you move to an area with focus schools and they have slightly smaller classes. We've had 18-26 in the older grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why private school exists. It’s free. You get what you pay for, especially if you’re a renter.

Not all public districts have such large class sizes! MCPS decides how large to make classes. It could cap the class sizes to be smaller.

LOL!!!!! MCPS could also decide to give every parent a free mortgage payment on their house. Smaller class sizes cost MONEY. If they don’t have the space or the money to pay teachers, they can’t cap sh1t. If you are rolling around with all this cash, go private or move. Otherwise be appreciative your kid has an option at all.

Maybe if MCPS wasn’t paying out settlements for protecting child sex abusers, MCPS would have more money for smaller class sizes.

If MCPS didn’t give crappy employees cushy admin jobs in Central Office paying over $100K (like the Damascus Principal and the other lady with the DUI from Lee MS), it would have more money for smaller class sizes.

If MCPS didn’t spend money on dozens of useless initiatives every year, there would be plenty of money for smaller class sizes.

Point is, MCPS has chosen NOT to make small class sizes a priority. MCPS is all about optics and BS. If they truly cared about student performance for all kids, they would not allow class sizes to get as large as they are.