Anonymous wrote:OP, I have not read all the responses. Here is my experience though....I have one child in K. 24 children per class. There are 3 K classes. No class has an aid of any kind, just the teacher. I honestly did not know how things were going to work; could the teacher maintain control over 24 children all day long; would my child get lost. I have my answer. My child is thriving in her K classroom. We lucked out, though, and got the sought after K teacher. She maintains order, my child is learning, teacher handles issues promptly and well. I cannot speak for the other two classes in the school though, and I have no idea how this will work in grades 1-5 for my child. FWIW, I have an older child who is in a private b/c he could not handle the big classes and the lack of real individualized attention/teaching. So, answer, I think it can work, but it depends on the child and the teacher.

Come on, it's ONE page! I think you can only say that when the thread has reached 3+ pages.

Totally depends on the teacher and the atmosphere. You can have big class with 25 "easy" children and everything is rosy or a small class of 14 with just 2 that don't mesh and the teacher has to be focused on them all the time. Some teachers have great management skills while others don't. It's unfair to say it will or will not be chaos because there is no way of knowing.

OP, I have not read all the responses. Here is my experience though....I have one child in K. 24 children per class. There are 3 K classes. No class has an aid of any kind, just the teacher. I honestly did not know how things were going to work; could the teacher maintain control over 24 children all day long; would my child get lost. I have my answer. My child is thriving in her K classroom. We lucked out, though, and got the sought after K teacher. She maintains order, my child is learning, teacher handles issues promptly and well. I cannot speak for the other two classes in the school though, and I have no idea how this will work in grades 1-5 for my child. FWIW, I have an older child who is in a private b/c he could not handle the big classes and the lack of real individualized attention/teaching. So, answer, I think it can work, but it depends on the child and the teacher.

OP here: thanks for the productive responses. I have twins. both average kids with no social issues. So this is helpful.

My daughter was in a class of 29 for kindergarten and it was a disaster. She was getting bullied and there was so much general chaos that it went unnoticed. We pulled her into private mid way through 1st.

Just one data point though, and I agree it probably depends a lot on the teacher/other kids.

Why don't you go in and observe? I know many families who have bene happy at Beall. I have two kids. One went to private K with 10 kids. The other MCPS and had 27. There were flaws with both. They are both fine successful students.

It's fine. If your child has a 160 IQ they will be bored. A special needs child might languish and get a reputation as being odd/disruptive, but a good teacher will manage them and send them for services. Average and slightly above average kids with decent social skills do just fine.

It all depends on the teacher. My DD was in k last year at College Gardens and had about 25 kids in her class. The teacher had excellent classroom management techniques and it didn't feel like 25 kids at all! And she learned plenty.

Anonymous wrote:chaos. plain and simple. with those numbers it isn't about teaching and learning, it is daycare.

This is crap. Honestly OP I think every prospective K parent has the same skepticism you posted in your query. I sure did. My kid is busy and unlike 99 percent of MoCo he is not advanced. And I don't quite get how it happens but evidently teachers know what they're doing - or at least the ones he's had did. We're in CC MD, where there are a ton of very demanding parents. Certainly some go private but many many many go public, including some proportion who would appear to have the resources to do otherwise, and seem to be satisfied with the results.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will be at Beall Elementry.

Depends on the teacher... some teachers can have 30 kids and have complete control over the class others just don't have classroom management in their makeup so the more kids there are the worse it will be.

Agreed. It's a high number but not unmanageable depending on the teacher.

If you attend a high FARMS school they limit class size. I think there are 16 in my daughter's 1st grade class.

chaos. plain and simple. with those numbers it isn't about teaching and learning, it is daycare.

Anonymous wrote:We will be at Beall Elementry.

Depends on the teacher... some teachers can have 30 kids and have complete control over the class others just don't have classroom management in their makeup so the more kids there are the worse it will be.

Is there an assistant in the classroom as well. That would make all the difference.

We will be at Beall Elementry.