Anonymous wrote:

In our previous town, salary increases were funded by a tax increase on the ballot to fund teacher salaries. The increase didn't extend to all the non-teaching staff. The school board didn't have the power or it would have been political suicide to consistently give raises to all employees by exploding the class sizes.

The class sizes for allocation of teachers went up by 0-5-1 student. Do you consider that an explosion? I don't.

•Elementary Schools: Grades 1 and 2 increase from 27 to 28 at non-focus schools only; Grade 3 increases from 27 to 28 at all schools; and Grades 4 and 5 increase from 29 to 30 at all schools.
•Middle Schools: An increase of 0.5 at schools with higher FARMS rates and 1.0 at other schools.
•High Schools: An increase of 0.5 at schools with higher FARMS rates and 1.0 at other schools.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?page=showrelease&id=3722

For reference: 27 to 28 is an increase of 4%. 29 to 30 is an increase of 3%.

If you look at the schools in the metro West suburbs of Boston where I'm from orginally, for example, it tends to be 16-18 kids in a class. Everywhere in MoCo that I'm aware of is at least 26-27 kids a class. Even in local catholic schools, it's still 26-27. I just don't get it. Is there a reason it is this way? We pay a ton in taxes and live in a tiny house and our kids are in a super crowded classroom.

We moved here from a similar area and couldn't figure it out either. The union is really strong here. The last few class size increases have all been driven by the school system increasing the salaries for the employees. It really has nothing to do with cost of living. The school system has the power to do whatever it wants as long as the union is happy. They don't even fire staff that cover up predators.

In our previous town, salary increases were funded by a tax increase on the ballot to fund teacher salaries. The increase didn't extend to all the non-teaching staff. The school board didn't have the power or it would have been political suicide to consistently give raises to all employees by exploding the class sizes.

Anonymous wrote:

aaaaand the number one smallest school in the county is.... Monacacy ES with 161 students and one class in each grade!

And look at the average class sizes at Monocacy last year: 21.0 for K, 26.3 for 1-3, 30.5 for 4-5.

Class size was not an issue I was thinking of when we moved DC to private high school this year. But I have to say I love that his largest class is 26 and smallest 18. We are from a W cluster, and I am not looking back.

Seriously. I remember having over 30 in elementary. And people, did your parents know the Great Schools ratings of the elementary schools you went to, or the FARMS rate? Of course not, but we did fine. Keep calm and carry on.

Anonymous wrote:19 kids in Our Silver Spring ES

17 in ours.

Anonymous wrote:My mom recently sent me an envelope of old photos including my class pictures from 3rd-5th grade. 31 kids each year. This was a middle class school in a small mid-western city and as I recall we all did fine. Why all the handwringing?

Yes, I remember having 33 kids in my third-grade class. This was in a one-class-per-grade school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom recently sent me an envelope of old photos including my class pictures from 3rd-5th grade. 31 kids each year. This was a middle class school in a small mid-western city and as I recall we all did fine. Why all the handwringing?

People in MoCo feel like they paid a fortune for houses that came with perfect schools.

+1 Some people in MoCo feel very entitled. I come from SF Bay Area. Houses are much more expensive there, and per pupil spending is about half of what MCPS spends on its kids. Services have been massively cut back.

OP - MCPS is a huge school district. The larger the district, the more unwieldy it becomes.

Anonymous wrote:My mom recently sent me an envelope of old photos including my class pictures from 3rd-5th grade. 31 kids each year. This was a middle class school in a small mid-western city and as I recall we all did fine. Why all the handwringing?

People in MoCo feel like they paid a fortune for houses that came with perfect schools.

My mom recently sent me an envelope of old photos including my class pictures from 3rd-5th grade. 31 kids each year. This was a middle class school in a small mid-western city and as I recall we all did fine. Why all the handwringing?

MoCo focus and title 1 schools have lower class sizes in the early grades. We're at a focus school and DS had 19 in his K class and 18 (so far) in 1st.

I was the first PP on this thread, with a child with special needs - his fourth grade teacher took me aside after the official IEP meeting to tell me that her children had ended up going to private school, and that she advised the same for my son. A school with SMALL class sizes.

Sigh.

Move to DuFief - get classes of 15 kids. Or Cold Spring, with a third grade class of 13.

Someone thought it was significant that a public school teacher sent her two kids to private. There can be so many reasons for that, ranging from individual student need to religion to family tradition to a desire for single sex education etc. It doesn't necessarily mean the public school teacher thinks the public school is sub-par. One also has to take into consideration the fact that there are better benefits in the public school system for teachers, which is why many teachers choose to work in a public school, and one way the schools can attract talent. With all the testing and evaluations based on numbers and huge class sizes, teachers may make a different calculation and decide to teach in private, where they can have some autonomy, easier classroom management/differentiation, more room for creativity, and less of a bureaucracy. I think a lot of public school teachers are pretty disillusioned right now, and it doesn't help that public sentiment is anti-teacher.

But it isn't just numbers in school - class size varies tremendously. Some large schools have small class size & vice versa.