Howard County public schools from 1972-1978. Always more than 30. I had more than 30 every year until high school, when I started taking AP courses. Those were more like 12-17. Even the honors classes had 30+.

25 was the norm at my suburban-Chicago school, also noted for having "good schools." We had gym, art and music, and there was a cursory G&T program and a special ed teacher. My kid gets way more at our well-regarded DCPS, which is why I can't fathom the concept of paying 30K+ for privates.

Northeast US, suburb noted for "good schools" mid 70s. About 25 per class, maybe up to 28 some years.

Suburban catholic, two classes of 30+ per grade (70s-80s), separate teachers for art, music, PE. For G/T, 5 of us had to walk to local public once a week.

I was in elementary school from the mid to late 80s. Dad was military so we were stationed in several different states in the US. Every elementary school class was probably low in the low 20s.

Howard County, mid 80s to early 90s. Around 30 kids per class, and four classes per grade. We moved as a class to Art, Music, Media (library), and PE. No foreign language.

G/T kids were pulled out for an hour once a week for "enrichment" class starting in 1st grade. Starting in 4th grade, there was G/T math (and maybe reading--I can't remember) everyday. I think there were 10-15 in my G/T classes (one class for the whole grade).

I remember we spent an extraordinary amount of time in those DARE classes in the later grades. I guess my ES was "high risk".

6th - 8th grade in an Asian country, classes typically had 50 kids. Kids stayed in the room, teachers would switch according to subject.

Anonymous wrote:My mother just passed away and we were looking through some old pictures. She taught kindergarten and 1st grade in rural northwestern Iowa in the late 1940's and 1950's. There were several pictures of her classes. ALL of the pictures had 30-35 children. No aide, no specials- she did music, art and PE. We were surprised at the size of the classes.

Same for schools I attended--35 was probably the average size.

Good upper middle class suburb. 25 to 30 kids. We did have music, art, etc. No special classes for GT. Serious LD problems were not in classroom.

21:35 again. Suburb of NJ outside NYC. No language or computer classes, but school had GT and special ed pullouts plus Art, Guidance, PE, and Music teachers. Public School.

Private school in CA the late '70s, early '80s had 22 per class, one teacher. Separate teachers for art, music, PE. I'd started in public school, and the classes were about the same size.