My older child 6th grade class in 2014: 20 students

My younger child's 6th grade class in 2020: 29 students

Same school, same teacher. It made a huge difference in the quality. Our younger child, a solid but somewhat introverted student, drowned in the sea of faces. She was doing fine, which means she was assumed to be holding her own, so she was on her own. FCPS Teachers are triaging now. They deal with the disrupters first, the highest performing kids second, and everyone else...here's another work sheet, just do it and turn it in. The kids who perform in the 85% to 95% range are just sort of invisible.

K and 1st had 30. It was too big. If your kid is average - which most are obviously- the get ignored. You read well? No small group for you go to the table do lexia.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 is not typical. My 3 kids have had 21-34 over the last decade or more.

When they had 34, do they add a teacher’s assistant? Wow.

Prior to 5th grade, it’s illegal to have more than 30 in VA.

FCPS presents averages to the public NOT how many are in the classroom for language arts +social studies and math + science.
It's illegal to have more than 24 in language arts for grades 6-12. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/quality/soq_max_class_size.pdf

Each school board shall assign licensed instructional personnel in a manner that produces
divisionwide ratios of students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching
positions, excluding special education teachers, principals, assistant principals, counselors, and
librarians, that are not greater than the following ratios: (i) 24 to one in kindergarten with no
class being larger than 29 students; if the average daily membership in any kindergarten class
exceeds 24 pupils, a full-time teacher's aide shall be assigned to the class; (ii) 24 to one in
grades one, two, and three with no class being larger than 30 students; (iii) 25 to one in grades
four through six with no class being larger than 35 students; and (iv) 24 to one in English
classes in grades six through 12.

Past- parents were desperate to get their children into aap out of some base schools because of immersion. 30 and 35 were irrelevant numbers. 24:1 for English classes doesn't mean ESL but is a bogus number for fcps.

Are you sure those aren’t simply guidelines? None of the HS English classes I teach this year has an enrollment of less than thirty.

It's about time the teachers and maybe the finally activated NAACP on language arts do headcounts and call out FCPS on this one. If after decades the NAACP finally said something I can't see why they wouldn't help teachers and students with this.

Perhaps FCPS adds in any stray ESOL, librarians, SPED? IDK. 24:1 means English classes but FCPS budget calls it a base ratio. For example a school with lower % FRPM-ESL assumes a classroom to have 31 students. I learned about the 24:1 over 15 years ago when a parent of an older kid had a whopping 38 in grade 6 for pat of the core instruction [SOL].

This is why FCPS even in AP English or history might have a lower count on writing papers etc than found in private schools or IB.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY-2022-Approved-Budget.pdf p 368/531 to find easily

High School Staffing
At the high school level, class size calculations assume students enroll in seven
classes including English, and teachers have five periods with a base ratio of 31.0,
except English classes which have a base ratio of 24.0. Additionally, staffing is
provided based on students eligible for FRM and students receiving ESOL services.
The weighted factor used to allocate needs-based staffing applies to schools with
25 percent or more of their student population eligible for FRM. School principals
have flexibility in determining how positions will be used. Additional staffing is also
provided to schools with International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, and/or
JROTC Programs. Each school also receives other positions, such as a 1.0 assessment
coach position and a 1.0 certified athletic trainer position.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 is not typical. My 3 kids have had 21-34 over the last decade or more.

When they had 34, do they add a teacher’s assistant? Wow.

Prior to 5th grade, it’s illegal to have more than 30 in VA.

FCPS presents averages to the public NOT how many are in the classroom for language arts +social studies and math + science.
It's illegal to have more than 24 in language arts for grades 6-12. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/quality/soq_max_class_size.pdf

Each school board shall assign licensed instructional personnel in a manner that produces
divisionwide ratios of students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching
positions, excluding special education teachers, principals, assistant principals, counselors, and
librarians, that are not greater than the following ratios: (i) 24 to one in kindergarten with no
class being larger than 29 students; if the average daily membership in any kindergarten class
exceeds 24 pupils, a full-time teacher's aide shall be assigned to the class; (ii) 24 to one in
grades one, two, and three with no class being larger than 30 students; (iii) 25 to one in grades
four through six with no class being larger than 35 students; and (iv) 24 to one in English
classes in grades six through 12.

Past- parents were desperate to get their children into aap out of some base schools because of immersion. 30 and 35 were irrelevant numbers. 24:1 for English classes doesn't mean ESL but is a bogus number for fcps.

Are you sure those aren’t simply guidelines? None of the HS English classes I teach this year has an enrollment of less than thirty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 is not typical. My 3 kids have had 21-34 over the last decade or more.

When they had 34, do they add a teacher’s assistant? Wow.

Prior to 5th grade, it’s illegal to have more than 30 in VA.

FCPS presents averages to the public NOT how many are in the classroom for language arts +social studies and math + science.
It's illegal to have more than 24 in language arts for grades 6-12. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/quality/soq_max_class_size.pdf

Each school board shall assign licensed instructional personnel in a manner that produces
divisionwide ratios of students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching
positions, excluding special education teachers, principals, assistant principals, counselors, and
librarians, that are not greater than the following ratios: (i) 24 to one in kindergarten with no
class being larger than 29 students; if the average daily membership in any kindergarten class
exceeds 24 pupils, a full-time teacher's aide shall be assigned to the class; (ii) 24 to one in
grades one, two, and three with no class being larger than 30 students; (iii) 25 to one in grades
four through six with no class being larger than 35 students; and (iv) 24 to one in English
classes in grades six through 12.

Past- parents were desperate to get their children into aap out of some base schools because of immersion. 30 and 35 were irrelevant numbers. 24:1 for English classes doesn't mean ESL but is a bogus number for fcps.

Anonymous wrote:27-28. FCPS isn’t what it once was.

“Classes are too big! This is outrageous!”

[hires more teachers]

“Ugh, more spending? What a waste!”

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Wait a week. Even when school starts in August, it is not unusual for new kids to show up after Labor Day.

I'm bumping this because I'm curious about if OP's child and other schools that had very small class sizes ended up consolidating classes or moving a teacher from one grade level to another to even out class sizes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 is not typical. My 3 kids have had 21-34 over the last decade or more.

When they had 34, do they add a teacher’s assistant? Wow.

Prior to 5th grade, it’s illegal to have more than 30 in VA.

They can add an IA. One year I had 31 third graders and an IA was assigned to the grade level.

+1, they just add IAs when the numbers get too high.

Anonymous wrote:We are at Saratoga. It looks like enrollment went down about 100 kids. My 6th grader has 22 and my 4th grader has 18 in their classes

We aren’t far from you. Our school went from almost 1000 in 2019-2020 to just under 900 last year, so about -100. I’ve heard enrollment is back up to close to where it was in 2019-2020, but I don’t know the numbers.

Anonymous wrote:27-28. FCPS isn’t what it once was.

I’ve been with FCPS for almost 30 years. Those are not unusual class sizes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 is not typical. My 3 kids have had 21-34 over the last decade or more.

When they had 34, do they add a teacher’s assistant? Wow.

Prior to 5th grade, it’s illegal to have more than 30 in VA.

They can add an IA. One year I had 31 third graders and an IA was assigned to the grade level.

Anonymous wrote:WOW. My kindergartener has 26 kids.

Same here. My son’s class three years ago had just 20.

27-28. FCPS isn’t what it once was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:16 is not typical. My 3 kids have had 21-34 over the last decade or more.

When they had 34, do they add a teacher’s assistant? Wow.

Prior to 5th grade, it’s illegal to have more than 30 in VA.