24 kids in kindergarten?? That is insane!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Max is 28 so you are kind of lucky.

Max is 28, but they don't add a new class until ALL classes are above that number. My child was lucky enough to be in a class of 29.

I asked and was told today that 26 was the max number. Once they are all at or over that number, another teacher is added. I think it is ridiculous that they let these class sizes get so big. My 5th grader has 5 less kids than my 1st grader. That just isn't right. K-2 need smaller numbers. And they truly need to start tracking kids in 1st grade. These mixed classrooms are a complete waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for FARMS … DD had 16 in her K class and DS will have 19 when he starts next week. DD has gotten an amazing education. You get what you pay for when you buy those houses in more expensive neighbor …. oh, wait ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Max is 28 so you are kind of lucky.

Max is 28, but they don't add a new class until ALL classes are above that number. My child was lucky enough to be in a class of 29.

I asked and was told today that 26 was the max number. Once they are all at or over that number, another teacher is added. I think it is ridiculous that they let these class sizes get so big. My 5th grader has 5 less kids than my 1st grader. That just isn't right. K-2 need smaller numbers. And they truly need to start tracking kids in 1st grade. These mixed classrooms are a complete waste of time.

Interesting; I looked it up and you're correct. My child's class had 29 though, so your statement isn't always correct. I wonder if it was a case of extra students being added after the initial teacher allocations had been made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for FARMS … DD had 16 in her K class and DS will have 19 when he starts next week. DD has gotten an amazing education. You get what you pay for when you buy those houses in more expensive neighbor …. oh, wait ...

It's OK in elementary, but peer influences become much more important as the kids get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for FARMS … DD had 16 in her K class and DS will have 19 when he starts next week. DD has gotten an amazing education. You get what you pay for when you buy those houses in more expensive neighbor …. oh, wait ...

It's OK in elementary, but peer influences become much more important as the kids get older.

… your implication being that people from lower SES will automatically be negative influences? That's an interesting mindset to have about the world. I'd beg to differ, being the daughter of a debutante who married the dirt-poor son of farmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for FARMS … DD had 16 in her K class and DS will have 19 when he starts next week. DD has gotten an amazing education. You get what you pay for when you buy those houses in more expensive neighbor …. oh, wait ...

It's OK in elementary, but peer influences become much more important as the kids get older.

… your implication being that people from lower SES will automatically be negative influences? That's an interesting mindset to have about the world. I'd beg to differ, being the daughter of a debutante who married the dirt-poor son of farmers.

I'm the daughter of a dirt-poor daughter of a farmer who married a WASP. Unfortunately, you do tend to see more negative-influences with lower SES. Look at the statistics. Schools (high schools & middle schools) with higher SES rates have more drop-outs, pregnancy, kids with arrest records, etc. You're incredibly naive if you don't think a child's peer group can influence their educational experience. There are many low SES kids who are great students, and who go on to achieve great things- my mother being one of them- but the odds are stacked against them. However, statistically, low SES kids are less likely to perform well I'm school and are less likely to go to college.

As much as I hate large classes, I'd choose a large class in a high SES school over a small class in a low SES school any day. Unfortunatly, SES has more of an influence on academic performance than class size.

[Anonymous]

No crowded classes at Cold Spring where my DD is in third grade. most classes around 14-18 kids. plenty of empty classrooms for extra individual attention and tutoring (or to remove one of the bad kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No crowded classes at Cold Spring where my DD is in third grade. most classes around 14-18 kids. plenty of empty classrooms for extra individual attention and tutoring (or to remove one of the bad kids).

See that really pisses me off. We are right across the street at Ritchie Park. We have tons of portables, high ratios and every school in our cluster is just as bad or worse. Why they can not relocate Horizon Hill to Cold Spring is beyond me. Either that or they should redistrict the never ending new buildings of Park Potomac to you or Beverly Farms - both under enrolled. Yet they gave the overcrowded school who already had to deal with all of Fallsgrove coming to it, another new section when Park Potomac was built. It is actually closer to Beverly Farms anyway. I just do not understand it. A new condo building will be opening in Spring 2015 and another round of increased enrollment will be hitting Ritchie Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for FARMS … DD had 16 in her K class and DS will have 19 when he starts next week. DD has gotten an amazing education. You get what you pay for when you buy those houses in more expensive neighbor …. oh, wait ...

It's OK in elementary, but peer influences become much more important as the kids get older.

… your implication being that people from lower SES will automatically be negative influences? That's an interesting mindset to have about the world. I'd beg to differ, being the daughter of a debutante who married the dirt-poor son of farmers.

I'm the daughter of a dirt-poor daughter of a farmer who married a WASP. Unfortunately, you do tend to see more negative-influences with lower SES. Look at the statistics. Schools (high schools & middle schools) with higher SES rates have more drop-outs, pregnancy, kids with arrest records, etc. You're incredibly naive if you don't think a child's peer group can influence their educational experience. There are many low SES kids who are great students, and who go on to achieve great things- my mother being one of them- but the odds are stacked against them. However, statistically, low SES kids are less likely to perform well I'm school and are less likely to go to college.

As much as I hate large classes, I'd choose a large class in a high SES school over a small class in a low SES school any day. Unfortunatly, SES has more of an influence on academic performance than class size.

I agree. And most of the time the FARMS schools have high ESL enrollment and they eat up so much of the teacher's time because they don't understand a lick of what she is saying. I will take a few more kids any day of the week over 16 kids with 6 that don't speak English. And once middle school hits SES does make a huge difference. The test scores, attendance, drop-out and police records of certain schools do not lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No crowded classes at Cold Spring where my DD is in third grade. most classes around 14-18 kids. plenty of empty classrooms for extra individual attention and tutoring (or to remove one of the bad kids).

PP, this is a serious question: why are you stirring the pot like this? This is just flat-out untrue. If you want MCPS to rezone part of the Richard Montgomery cluster to Wootton or Churchill, then say so.

Cold Spring ES at a glance:

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

average class size K 17.5, 1-3 20.2, 4-5 23.5
school at 75% capacity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I asked and was told today that 26 was the max number. Once they are all at or over that number, another teacher is added. I think it is ridiculous that they let these class sizes get so big. My 5th grader has 5 less kids than my 1st grader. That just isn't right. K-2 need smaller numbers. And they truly need to start tracking kids in 1st grade. These mixed classrooms are a complete waste of time.

...tracking kids in FIRST GRADE?

Wow.

[Anonymous]

My child's school is a magnet school and the class sized is capped at 24 students. Other more overcrowded schools are upset about this and want to de-magnetize the school. Their class sized can reach 30 students or more!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child's school is a magnet school and the class sized is capped at 24 students. Other more overcrowded schools are upset about this and want to de-magnetize the school. Their class sized can reach 30 students or more!

Ritchie Park ES was at 140% of capacity last year. Average class sizes: 23.5 for kindergarten, 21.9 for grades 1-3, 22.8 for grades 4-5.

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

[Anonymous]

6:54, you are a flat-out idiot. CSES at 75% capacity while other nearby schools are exceed 100% capacity. You can't understand that??? Did a tumbleweed blowing down the empty hallways at CSES hit you in head?

You disgust me, 6:54.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6:54, you are a flat-out idiot. CSES at 75% capacity while other nearby schools are exceed 100% capacity. You can't understand that??? Did a tumbleweed blowing down the empty hallways at CSES hit you in head?

You disgust me, 6:54.

PP at 23:48 claims: "most classes around 14-18 kids. plenty of empty classrooms for extra individual attention and tutoring (or to remove one of the bad kids)."

The only part of this claim that may be true is that there are plenty of empty classrooms.

I am PP at 6:54.