Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 21:28     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
DD is one of 16 in her K class (focus school).
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 21:26     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
If you are not sure start in public..if it doesn't work for you move on and know your $$ is well spent on private. If it does work out enjoy spending the extra $$ on other enrichments/travel/college.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 21:11     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:Kinder teacher here, each year my class runs between 22-24 consistently. I have taught k for 10 years and agree with a pp, a skilled teacher can handle this class size. Yes, in a perfect world our classes would be less than 20, but until that happens, teachers are used to the class size. I can also tell you that, while I don't work at RHPS, I have worked with several of them through various mcps programs. The kindergarten teachers at that school have amazing reputations among both the Bethesda/Chevy chase parents and the mcps community at large. They are among the best out there, I wish I could afford a house in the area so my child could have one of them!


Oh - had this post only been written when we started pondering this question and decided to go private rather than deal with the large RHPS classes. We start a private K next year and will always wonder if I'm throwing that $$ down the proverbial drain. Nice to hear the bit about the teachers - that was the biggest concern.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 19:53     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
DS has 17, plus an aide (b/c of a child with special needs).
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 19:46     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Our school has 16-17 students and 1 teacher. Two of the K classes have an aid because there are children in the class with special needs. This is a Maryland Focus School, not title I.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 09:23     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Teacher to student ratios in each grade are set at the county level. My understanding is there are 3 levels (these are for typical classrooms, I have no idea what learning center classroom ratios are).

Title 1
Focus School
Everybody else

If you call the school you are interested in, they can tell if they are title 1 or a focus school (and qualify for lower class sizes).
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 07:53     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Kinder teacher here, each year my class runs between 22-24 consistently. I have taught k for 10 years and agree with a pp, a skilled teacher can handle this class size. Yes, in a perfect world our classes would be less than 20, but until that happens, teachers are used to the class size. I can also tell you that, while I don't work at RHPS, I have worked with several of them through various mcps programs. The kindergarten teachers at that school have amazing reputations among both the Bethesda/Chevy chase parents and the mcps community at large. They are among the best out there, I wish I could afford a house in the area so my child could have one of them!
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 00:37     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
We had 25 kids, no aides. Now up to 27 kids. So f'ing pissed off I didn't do private. My daughter had 33 in her 3rd grade math class. DISASTER!!!
Anonymous
Post 03/15/2014 12:17     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:One of the many reasons we opted for private over RH was because of the teacher:student ratio. The year we looked it was 27 kids per classs with 1 teacher.


In kindergarten?
Anonymous
Post 03/15/2014 12:15     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Focus and Title 1 school have less than 20 students for grades K-2.
Rosemary Hills is not either but I have heard great things from parents.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2014 12:35     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Ours has 25 and one teacher. There is an aide who is shared between several K classes.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2014 09:55     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of studies that show class size isn't as important as the teacher's ability. My DS had 28 kids in K and I was aghast. However, his teacher (only her second year teaching) was AMAZING. The class size was not a problem.


yep - and both my kids had 25-26 kids per class with experienced classroom teachers, and I always felt that the teacher was available to us as parents and managed their classrooms extremely well. Class size is not the most important thing. It is only one proxy for making your decision.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2014 07:44     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
I agree with PP. I would much prefer a fananstic teacher then a small class. MY DD had 29 in grade one but we all agree it was the best year ever for her. Unfortunately with public you can't predict the class size as it can go up or down by the year. For second grade they added another class to DD year and the class size dropped considerably.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2014 07:39     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
There are a lot of studies that show class size isn't as important as the teacher's ability. My DS had 28 kids in K and I was aghast. However, his teacher (only her second year teaching) was AMAZING. The class size was not a problem.

By third grade, 29 kids in the class was catastrophic. We switched to private with 12-15 kids in the class. It was much better.

A great teacher can handle the large classes. But, great teachers are not necessarily the norm.
Anonymous
Post 03/14/2014 06:51     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
I looked back at my own K class photo and we had 28 kids. It was half day but I am sure she had just as many in the morning. My son's school has 24 kids in a class (magnet school) and my Title One school has around 25-27 kids in each K class with a floating assistant.