Class Sizess

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's in line with what they announced in June.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/community/school-year-2023-2024/Community-Message-20240612.html

Yup. Last year my classes were average 28. Other teaches should post here so people know how the one person class size increase from June is actually impacting their kids

Most of my classes growing up here back in the 80s were 35-40.

In the 80's we didn't have full inclusion. Children that were years behind or had major behaviors were put in different classes. It is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Full inclusion is not what is growing the class size in this county since the 80's.

Class sizes have not been growing since the 80s.

My class sizes here in the 80s were much bigger than today. I think I had 40 kids in my PE class.

PE has a lot more than that now. At least in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

The council would have to be willing to pay for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just saw my class sizes for the year (middle school)

29, 32, 32, 32, 33

This is to say: I will not be teaching your kid this year. I’ll be managing behaviors for 50 minutes and hoping information gets transferred at least once a day.

Here’s to a great school year!

DD graduated from MCPS four years ago. That was pretty much the norm in her classes - even in a W (gasp) school. In fact, her chemistry class had 36 students and the teacher basically told us that she'd be spending lots of time on classroom management instead of teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

The council would have to be willing to pay for it.

No! Stop making council the Gillian. MCPS has many places to trim the fat and they refuse. Teachers can’t get copy paper but they can get a free second Master’s degree? Ridiculous. And then there’s the tangled web of bussing kids all over the dang county to give the illusion of choice. That alone screams to everyone that all schools are not equal!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's in line with what they announced in June.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/community/school-year-2023-2024/Community-Message-20240612.html

Yup. Last year my classes were average 28. Other teaches should post here so people know how the one person class size increase from June is actually impacting their kids

Most of my classes growing up here back in the 80s were 35-40.

Class sizes are still that size in other parts of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

The council would have to be willing to pay for it.

No! Stop making council the Gillian. MCPS has many places to trim the fat and they refuse. Teachers can’t get copy paper but they can get a free second Master’s degree? Ridiculous. And then there’s the tangled web of bussing kids all over the dang county to give the illusion of choice. That alone screams to everyone that all schools are not equal!

They aren't going to bus kids everywhere chill. But they have plenty of money and the BOE needs to be held accountable for their mismanagement. The council appropriately funded MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And it will be the teachers fault if they are bouncing off the walls or being distracted on their phones

Maybe they could issue phones to kids that don't have them so the ones that don't care about school are busy watching tiktok instead of distracting others.

Teachers need to care about all students. The ones who don’t care usually suck up more time and energy from the teacher. It is draining to work with them but you can’t give up. Generally, there is a reason why they are so disinterested. But it takes time to figure out what is going on with them. Small gains sometimes take huge effort. It is not cool for a teacher to ignore any student - at least that is my philosophy.

Asking teachers to solve massive social problems by just caring more is how we got into this situation to begin with. No.

This is why we need smaller classes. And we need Honors and on-level - not Honors for All. I have students who only show up sporadically but I can’t ignore them when they do show up. Every kid deserves attention - whether they are special education, high-performing, slackers, etc. Smaller classes and strict phone policies would help a lot

As a teacher you can have a strict phone policy and work with parents. Honors for all is an issue for kids who are not as academic and it does them more harm than good if they cannot keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

The council would have to be willing to pay for it.

No! Stop making council the Gillian. MCPS has many places to trim the fat and they refuse. Teachers can’t get copy paper but they can get a free second Master’s degree? Ridiculous. And then there’s the tangled web of bussing kids all over the dang county to give the illusion of choice. That alone screams to everyone that all schools are not equal!

They aren't going to bus kids everywhere chill. But they have plenty of money and the BOE needs to be held accountable for their mismanagement. The council appropriately funded MCPS.

They already bus kids all over the county with all these special programs and consortiums. Why are there 3 different middle school bus routes and 4 different HS bus routes that come through my neighborhood? It’s because we live in a consortium. That’s not counting the additional bus routes that depart the elem school to take kids to immersion or CES programs. It also doesn’t count the MS kids getting a bus back from their HS after taking level 3 of a WL because it isn’t offered at their chosen MS. I’m shocked this didn’t change in the early years of bus driver shortages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And it will be the teachers fault if they are bouncing off the walls or being distracted on their phones

Maybe they could issue phones to kids that don't have them so the ones that don't care about school are busy watching tiktok instead of distracting others.

Teachers need to care about all students. The ones who don’t care usually suck up more time and energy from the teacher. It is draining to work with them but you can’t give up. Generally, there is a reason why they are so disinterested. But it takes time to figure out what is going on with them. Small gains sometimes take huge effort. It is not cool for a teacher to ignore any student - at least that is my philosophy.

Asking teachers to solve massive social problems by just caring more is how we got into this situation to begin with. No.

This is why we need smaller classes. And we need Honors and on-level - not Honors for All. I have students who only show up sporadically but I can’t ignore them when they do show up. Every kid deserves attention - whether they are special education, high-performing, slackers, etc. Smaller classes and strict phone policies would help a lot

As a teacher you can have a strict phone policy and work with parents. Honors for all is an issue for kids who are not as academic and it does them more harm than good if they cannot keep up.

Sigh. Strict phone policy in a classroom with 25-30 students means that at the start of every class I waste 5-10 minutes haranguing and arguing with kids every single day to put their phones away. And it puts me in a bad mood. But if that’s what we gotta do, that’s what I will do but it is a shame because 5-10 minutes of less learning every single day really adds up.

[Anonymous]

People commenting on here that they went to MCPS schools in the 70's, 80's, 90's or even early 2000's have NO idea how different schools are these days. Our students are not the same at all. It's very hard to teach large classes of students when the behaviors are so out of control. Let alone the students who are mainstreamed in without the appropriate supports in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

The council would have to be willing to pay for it.

No! Stop making council the Gillian. MCPS has many places to trim the fat and they refuse. Teachers can’t get copy paper but they can get a free second Master’s degree? Ridiculous. And then there’s the tangled web of bussing kids all over the dang county to give the illusion of choice. That alone screams to everyone that all schools are not equal!

They aren't going to bus kids everywhere chill. But they have plenty of money and the BOE needs to be held accountable for their mismanagement. The council appropriately funded MCPS.

They already bus kids all over the county with all these special programs and consortiums. Why are there 3 different middle school bus routes and 4 different HS bus routes that come through my neighborhood? It’s because we live in a consortium. That’s not counting the additional bus routes that depart the elem school to take kids to immersion or CES programs. It also doesn’t count the MS kids getting a bus back from their HS after taking level 3 of a WL because it isn’t offered at their chosen MS. I’m shocked this didn’t change in the early years of bus driver shortages.

They need to cut this out. Either eliminate these programs or require people who want to partiicpate provide their own transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smaller classes would solve so many issues. But MCPS believes bigger is better.

The council would have to be willing to pay for it.

No! Stop making council the Gillian. MCPS has many places to trim the fat and they refuse. Teachers can’t get copy paper but they can get a free second Master’s degree? Ridiculous. And then there’s the tangled web of bussing kids all over the dang county to give the illusion of choice. That alone screams to everyone that all schools are not equal!

They aren't going to bus kids everywhere chill. But they have plenty of money and the BOE needs to be held accountable for their mismanagement. The council appropriately funded MCPS.

They already bus kids all over the county with all these special programs and consortiums. Why are there 3 different middle school bus routes and 4 different HS bus routes that come through my neighborhood? It’s because we live in a consortium. That’s not counting the additional bus routes that depart the elem school to take kids to immersion or CES programs. It also doesn’t count the MS kids getting a bus back from their HS after taking level 3 of a WL because it isn’t offered at their chosen MS. I’m shocked this didn’t change in the early years of bus driver shortages.

+100. Special programs I might give a pass because you can’t put them in every school and that does actually provide choice and opportunity. But the Consortium’s need to be eliminated and folks go to their home schools so we can stop all the unnecessary routes.

[Anonymous]

Why do we need to provide choice in a public school district? Especially when the needs for the masses are much higher without significant revenue increases?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do we need to provide choice in a public school district? Especially when the needs for the masses are much higher without significant revenue increases?

+1

Besides special Ed programming (which uses different busses), all kids should go to their assigned elem/middle/high school. Stop the consortiums and special programs- we need to pare the budget!