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Advice from experienced parents please - worried about class sizes
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Title One schools tend to have smaller class sizes esp in the first few grades. |
Anonymous
| I wonder what will happen to class sizes for schools with focus funds for targeted instruction (higher FARMs and ELL rates), given the budget problems. |
Anonymous
During this tight time, the "cure" is to mainstream more SPED and ELL students (level 5s) at the high school level. That way, you can cut some SPED and ESOL positions to save some money. |
Anonymous
10:12 here. What about at the elementary level? I'm thinking of our neighborhood elementary schools, one K-2 and one 3-5, which receive focus funds or targeted instruction funds because of higher ELL and FARMs rates. The K-2 school has small class sizes now. I'm wondering if that might change. |
Anonymous
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I'm almost amused by the frantic worries about a class size of 25. I grew in up a nice midwestern suburb with a very well-respected school system, and all through elementary school we had 25 kids in my classes, with no teachers' aides (except for the occasional student teacher). We did have a few extra teachers that would take smaller groups for reading or special ed work.
Really, the class size was no big deal. I ended up at a top tier law school, one classmate went to Univ. of Chicago, one to Wharton, etc. - we were more than prepared for the challenges of junior high and the even greater challenges of college prep/IP courses in high school. I have great memories of 2nd grade because my teacher was young and really nice, and less wonderful memories of 1st grade because my teacher was old and grouchy. I have wonderful memories of the school fairs and races in the playground, Girl Scouts and my friends. But I have no bad memories related to having a class size of 25. It just wasn't an issue. |
Anonymous
| We were worried about large class size, but halfway through 1st grade I have to say that the school seems to be doing a great job. I think it helps that they regularly break the kids into smaller groups (which may or may not be ability-level-based). I also think it helps that we have a very involved parent community. |
Anonymous
For some kids like my DS, he couldn't operate in such a large class size. Too much noise, too much stimulation and he couldn't settle down and concentrate. Plus, everything took forever- standing in line for this and that, etc. Plus, when we were kids, most kids started school on the same page. Most kids knew their colors and could count to 10 and that's about it. So the first grade teacher started everyone at the beginning. These days, kids have a huge variety of early childhood experiences from staying at home for 5 yrs and knowing nothing when they start K to kids who are good readers already. So the job of the classroom teachers is a whole lot more complicated. |
Anonymous
Glad you survived first pp above. As the second pp notes, It's just not that simple for some of us. My son has a very hard time operating in a crowded school (hallways upon arrival, full class, crowded noisy lunchroom, crowded playground where everyone has to manage on the single piece of outdated equipment; I could go on and on). Unfortunately, smaller classes via the private school route turned out not to be an option. Sometimes I wonder if we should move from one part of MoCo to another to get into the capped class size schools. |
Anonymous
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I went to Catholic school and remember class sizes of up to 36, with no teacher's aides.
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Anonymous
| I went to Catholic school too and the teachers had a whip (that's what we called it) in the classroom. I never saw them use it but it was remarkable how well ordered their classrooms were with 30 kids. Plus they taught tons of useless crap by rote so it didn't matter if there were 30 kids or 60 kids. All we had to do was repeat the teacher. Things are a bit different now. |
Anonymous
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"Glad you survived first pp above."
I didn't "survive" - it was a pleasant experience and I thrived. AND, I was a quiet, shy kid. But, my school was not crowded - the hallways were not full, the lunchroom was not noisy, and there plenty of room on the playground. It was never overwhelming and I never felt like things were too big. Sounds like you're confusing two issues - class size with school crowdedness. |
Anonymous
New poster here, and also a Catholic school alum. There were 38-39 kids in my class for 1st through 5th grade-I still have the class photos to prove it. It was awful. We didn't learn much. |
Anonymous
Yes, I went to Catholic school in NY, and there were 50 kids in my 3rd grade class. I don't remember anyone ever assessing my reading level, I was so far behind the kids in public school. |
Anonymous
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Here's some advice: Don't worry about things that have no impact on your life right now - especially when there's no action you can take right now to solve the hypothetical future problem anyway.
If you don't like MoCo Schools, then move or choose private. It isn't easy, but it is simple. |