Class size at some FCPS schools is out of control. They don't need to be as small as Title 1 schools, but there's no reason schools should have 30 first graders or 35 4th graders.

Oh wait, it's all coming back to me: endless worksheets!

PP here. I agree on this point, teacher. Especially in K and first grade, the smaller class size is very important.

I don't know how teachers managed when I was in school, during the end of the baby boomer years, when our average class size was about 40.

Guess what? I was a teacher (never in FCPS). There was one year I had 34 FIRST graders. I will tell you that I would have preferred a smaller class to a salary increase.

I think people are trying to make the point that small class size is not everything, especially after the first two years of school. A large classroom of well-off, carefully fed, enriched-at-home children (Haycock) is still going to outperform a smaller classroom of practically feral kids (some Title I schools my kids attended). Teacher quality makes a massive difference in any setting, so attracting the best teachers will matter more than dropping the class size by a couple of kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids have been in three separate FCPS elementary schools and have never been in a class with less than 25 kids. (Non-Title 1). Haycock parents seem like entitled asshats! Its public school, people. I'd rather see teachers get raises before class sizes are reduced at high-achieving schools like Haycock. The test scores are great so obviously the class sizes are not impeding learning--credit to the teachers for that.
Signed, not a teacher.

So what if it's public school? Smaller class sizes are still preferable. Obviously it's a question of balancing needs, but FCPS would be ill-advised to ignore the fact that APS sits next door and touts its smaller class sizes as an advantage over FCPS. You sound like a moron.

The last time I checked, less than 10% of Arlington's population is enrolled in the public schools and more than 16% of the population of Fairfax County is enrolled. That means -everything else being equal- it costs the taxpayer 50% MORE to cover school costs in Fairfax than in Arlington. That is why Fairfax's property tax rate is higher than Arlington's. However, the tax payers of Fairfax will only pay so much.

Plus, Arlington's public schools are about the size of ONE of Fairfax's clusters. So we have to pay for everyone's salaries that are above the cluster level and those salaries are not the smallest int he system.

Plus, we are still under the Dillon rule.

Anonymous wrote:Our kids have been in three separate FCPS elementary schools and have never been in a class with less than 25 kids. (Non-Title 1). Haycock parents seem like entitled asshats! Its public school, people. I'd rather see teachers get raises before class sizes are reduced at high-achieving schools like Haycock. The test scores are great so obviously the class sizes are not impeding learning--credit to the teachers for that.
Signed, not a teacher.

So what if it's public school? Smaller class sizes are still preferable. Obviously it's a question of balancing needs, but FCPS would be ill-advised to ignore the fact that APS sits next door and touts its smaller class sizes as an advantage over FCPS. You sound like a moron.