Anonymous
Post 03/18/2014 10:19     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:These Title 1 and Focus schools piss me off. So do magnets. How about all the schools get equal ratios and education??


If you would like your child to have the smaller classes afforded by a Title I or focus school, simply move to a higher-FARMs area.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2014 09:09     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Sorry, but even at RHPS teacher quality varies widely. Some are great. Many are mediocre. A few are terrible. It's a large school so there is very little supervision at recess and the special ed services were not great, IME. Can't speak to the relative merits of RHPS vs. other MCPS schools.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 20:33     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:Hi, I am considering moving into the RH district and it is too late to apply for private school. Parents at RH, do you love the school? I am between a home in Burning Tree and RH/Ch Ch. Thank you!!


RH is still in a good cluster and only goes through 2nd grade. P.S. It's really never too late to apply to privates. Call the private schools you're interested in and see if they have space. Now is a good time, b/c they'll be knowing who accepted and who declined.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 20:25     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
I'd say less than 20 is ideal. More than that and I think it affects learning. There are only so many hours in a school day and if your child is an advanced reader, he/ she may not get time with the teacher. This has happened to two people we know. The teacher just doesn't have the time to work with them and they were left on their own to read. I sure someone will say it doesn't happen. Maybe in some classrooms it doesn't. But it does happen. To be clear, these were not at Rosemary Hills.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 16:51     Subject: Re:Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:
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.


What matters most is what's best for your child. We went private because ours would not do well in a large class setting. We have not regretted our decision.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 10:10     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
There was a thread on RHPS very recently (and many before it in the archives.) I was one of the final posters to chime in about what a great school it was for my older child; I have a younger one who will start in the fall.

Fwiw there's really no way to game the class size issue - all the Bethesda/CC elementaries have larger class sizes than those in less wealthy areas of MoCo. But year to year, the sizes can vary based on the number of kids in the grade, plus it varies over the course of the year as people inevitably move in and out.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 10:08     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:These Title 1 and Focus schools piss me off. So do magnets. How about all the schools get equal ratios and education??


ratios of what? students to teacher? so they are supposed to re-zone every year???
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 09:21     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:These Title 1 and Focus schools piss me off. So do magnets. How about all the schools get equal ratios and education??


Yes, I hate it when kids who need more resources in school actually get more resources. So unfair to the kids who don't need more resources.


Well they should bus all the kids that need resources to those schools just like they bus the magnet kids to other schools. There are plenty of kids in EVERY school that that need extra resources. There are plenty of kids in title 1/focus schools that don't need the extra resources and free meals, lower ratios and get them anyway. There are plenty of kids bored with a dumbed down curriculum but don't apply or just missed magnet. It would benefit schools to make them all better than spend the ridiculous amount of money on title 1/magnet etc...
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 07:09     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:These Title 1 and Focus schools piss me off. So do magnets. How about all the schools get equal ratios and education??


Yes, I hate it when kids who need more resources in school actually get more resources. So unfair to the kids who don't need more resources.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2014 05:14     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Magnets don't have small classes. They are always maxed because there are waitlists if someone moves.
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 23:15     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
These Title 1 and Focus schools piss me off. So do magnets. How about all the schools get equal ratios and education??
Anonymous
Post 03/16/2014 21:41     Subject: Montgomery County kindergarten: What's a reasonable teacher: student ratio to look for?
Anonymous wrote:Please give your opinion- we are considering public and private. Public is Rosemary Hills. Thanks in advance.


RH classes will be filled to the max--when we went there pretty much all the classes had 27-28 kids. Yes, one teacher. There was 1 aid that was shared among 5 classrooms, so the kids were lucky to see her an hour or two each week. They rely heavily on parent volunteers.