Constructive ways to decrease Janney class size

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have had 25-29 students in every year of elementary school, as have many in JKLM schools. I do not see it as a problem. There are helpers, assistants, small groups, specialists. It is rare that the whole class is ever expected to learn one lesson together. Just because there are 26 in a class, it doesn't mean they function as a block like that from 9-3. PK students are a source of income for these schools. Each PK student receives more funding from DCPS than a K-5 student and the overall package helps the bottom line budget of a school. Fewer PK may mean a decrease in number of specialists, etc, for upper grades. It is not a simple cut the numbers question. DC has no mandated class size limits, except for PK (limited to 20 in a class). Janney & Mann are not going to get physically bigger. Lafayette and Murch eventually will, but they are all primarily IB schools already, so unless boundaries change the question is better phrased how do schools maximize lesson plans, scheduling, assistants, small group work, etc in schools with high numbers to make sure all children are learning and growing as the population grows.

based on my experience I strongly desagree. we are at Murch, with 2 kids (4th and K). class size has always been 18-22 (with one aide full time in Pre-k and K), except for K for my oldest, when there were 26 kids in her class. that year has been the worst we had and I strongly believe that a smaller class would have been easier for her. she was just learning how to read and many kids in her class were already reading at 1st grade level, and I think it was difficult for the teacher to follow all the kids. this year my youngest is in K and there are 17 kids in her class. the difference is dramatic. if I regularly found classes with 25-29 kids I would change schoool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have had 25-29 students in every year of elementary school, as have many in JKLM schools. I do not see it as a problem. There are helpers, assistants, small groups, specialists. It is rare that the whole class is ever expected to learn one lesson together. Just because there are 26 in a class, it doesn't mean they function as a block like that from 9-3. PK students are a source of income for these schools. Each PK student receives more funding from DCPS than a K-5 student and the overall package helps the bottom line budget of a school. Fewer PK may mean a decrease in number of specialists, etc, for upper grades. It is not a simple cut the numbers question. DC has no mandated class size limits, except for PK (limited to 20 in a class). Janney & Mann are not going to get physically bigger. Lafayette and Murch eventually will, but they are all primarily IB schools already, so unless boundaries change the question is better phrased how do schools maximize lesson plans, scheduling, assistants, small group work, etc in schools with high numbers to make sure all children are learning and growing as the population grows.

based on my experience I strongly desagree. we are at Murch, with 2 kids (4th and K). class size has always been 18-22 (with one aide full time in Pre-k and K), except for K for my oldest, when there were 26 kids in her class. that year has been the worst we had and I strongly believe that a smaller class would have been easier for her. she was just learning how to read and many kids in her class were already reading at 1st grade level, and I think it was difficult for the teacher to follow all the kids. this year my youngest is in K and there are 17 kids in her class. the difference is dramatic. if I regularly found classes with 25-29 kids I would change schoool.

Totally agree. I'm less concerned about 26 kids in a class for older grades, but kindergarten and 1st grade really, really benefit from smaller classes.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Murch is overcrowded in terms of the whole school, but class sizes are okay, is that fair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is funny. You guys are wanting so, so hard not be be rezoned out of Janney forever, inclusive of preK through 5th.

Somehow, it's ok to lose that "walkability" during preK-2 (by being shunted to Hearst), so long as the Janney carrot remains for 3-5th. And the addresses north of Janney who aren't anywhere near Hearst? Get in the car, folks!

But back in the day (last fall 2014), it was NOT ok for any family equidistant btwn Janney & Hearst to lose their precious walkability to Janney. Thus, these addresses could not be rezoned.


Remember that one?

You know what, there is more than one opinion in the Janney community. That fight split the community in many ways that we do not need to go into here. I for one thought the "we are the closest and we walk" arguments were not particularly persuasive given the geographic realities of how close all three schools were to each other. That said, the slicing off of that small number of homes did not make a lot of sense either.

Long way of saying, I am not contradicting prior positions by saying what I said above.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, the PK-2 idea seems nice. Maybe we should talk to Bowser? Allows true focus on early education, then 3-5 the kids are able to feel more independent. It will allow a nice chunk of OOB but still all the Janney kids get PK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have any idea how many OOB children are at Janney?

How many children are there under false pretense? (parents own the property but rent it out so they do not really live there, family somehow provided fradulent information to register?)

Come on - everyone knows a family who used to live there but moved and stuck around in the best interest of their child.

Are you reporting them? Because it is not in the best interest of your child if you think it would be a better learning environment to have a smaller class size.

I know of at least one family at Janney who really lived in MD but registered under a neighborhood address. One parent was a DC government employee and maybe felt they would get a ‘pass’ as a result.

[Anonymous]

"The best thing would be to twin Hearst and Janney with one being the lower and the other the upper elementary school. Run a shuttle school bus between the two to facilitate dropping off and picking up siblings. You could cut class size, right-size the program to the boundary area and have a common curriculum."

I love this idea. We would still retain walkability because we could do drop off at the school closest to our homes with the proposed shuttle. If implemented in the relatively short term it would be a win-win for both schools. Greater OOB for Janney and greater IB for Hearst. I would love to have my child in a school dedicated to young children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The best thing would be to twin Hearst and Janney with one being the lower and the other the upper elementary school. Run a shuttle school bus between the two to facilitate dropping off and picking up siblings. You could cut class size, right-size the program to the boundary area and have a common curriculum."

I love this idea. We would still retain walkability because we could do drop off at the school closest to our homes with the proposed shuttle. If implemented in the relatively short term it would be a win-win for both schools. Greater OOB for Janney and greater IB for Hearst. I would love to have my child in a school dedicated to young children.

This could totally be seen as a win-win situation. Maybe as an olive branch the Janney PTA could ask to hear thoughts from the Hearst PTA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have any idea how many OOB children are at Janney?

How many children are there under false pretense? (parents own the property but rent it out so they do not really live there, family somehow provided fradulent information to register?)

Come on - everyone knows a family who used to live there but moved and stuck around in the best interest of their child.

Are you reporting them? Because it is not in the best interest of your child if you think it would be a better learning environment to have a smaller class size.

I know of at least one family at Janney who really lived in MD but registered under a neighborhood address. One parent was a DC government employee and maybe felt they would get a ‘pass’ as a result.

Did you report them - or is everyone turning a blind eye and complaining about class size?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The best thing would be to twin Hearst and Janney with one being the lower and the other the upper elementary school. Run a shuttle school bus between the two to facilitate dropping off and picking up siblings. You could cut class size, right-size the program to the boundary area and have a common curriculum."

I love this idea. We would still retain walkability because we could do drop off at the school closest to our homes with the proposed shuttle. If implemented in the relatively short term it would be a win-win for both schools. Greater OOB for Janney and greater IB for Hearst. I would love to have my child in a school dedicated to young children.

This could totally be seen as a win-win situation. Maybe as an olive branch the Janney PTA could ask to hear thoughts from the Hearst PTA?

Strangely, the real opposition to this could come from some in the Hearst community, as the result over time probably would be a sharp reduction in OOB spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The best thing would be to twin Hearst and Janney with one being the lower and the other the upper elementary school. Run a shuttle school bus between the two to facilitate dropping off and picking up siblings. You could cut class size, right-size the program to the boundary area and have a common curriculum."

I love this idea. We would still retain walkability because we could do drop off at the school closest to our homes with the proposed shuttle. If implemented in the relatively short term it would be a win-win for both schools. Greater OOB for Janney and greater IB for Hearst. I would love to have my child in a school dedicated to young children.

This could totally be seen as a win-win situation. Maybe as an olive branch the Janney PTA could ask to hear thoughts from the Hearst PTA?

Strangely, the real opposition to this could come from some in the Hearst community, as the result over time probably would be a sharp reduction in OOB spots.

Sadly, this is true. Just look at the lack of support for a PS3 class.

[Anonymous]

I do not want my children split between 2 schools and I am sure I am not the only one.

Was it Eaton, Hearst or Murch that used to only go through 3rd grade? They have moved to a consistent model for a reason.

Maybe it is time to reduce the number of PreK classes and make K smaller?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not want my children split between 2 schools and I am sure I am not the only one.

Was it Eaton, Hearst or Murch that used to only go through 3rd grade? They have moved to a consistent model for a reason.

Maybe it is time to reduce the number of PreK classes and make K smaller?

It was Hearst that only went to the 3rd grade. My now 9th grader at Wilson attended Janney afterwards.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP. I will add that the year she left Hearst for Janney is when the school added the 4th grade which was held in a learning cottage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not want my children split between 2 schools and I am sure I am not the only one.

Was it Eaton, Hearst or Murch that used to only go through 3rd grade? They have moved to a consistent model for a reason.

Maybe it is time to reduce the number of PreK classes and make K smaller?

It was Hearst that only went to the 3rd grade. My now 9th grader at Wilson attended Janney afterwards.

At the time didn't Hearst feed Eaton / Murch?