Anonymous wrote:If my average child could get into a top 5-10ish private school, I'd gladly pay $30 in tuition.

He/she likely could. Admission officers don't necessarily only take the top kids. They still want well rounded classes. And with the current economy, a full-pay average kid might have a better shot than a top kid who needs financial aid.

If my average child could get into a top 5-10ish private school, I'd gladly pay $30 in tuition.

This is one of the big reasons we don't use the public schools.

Well, if I had the money I would send my kid to private for smaller class size and longer recess...oh well, c'est la vie!

My two kids have been in FCPS elementary school for 10 years and they both had small classes throughout (less than 22, sometimes fewer than 20).

Quite a few families that are zoned for the school tend to send their kids to the nearby Catholic school or to send them to the AAP center even though there is a local Level IV class in grades 3-6. I guess this keeps class sizes down. There are more immigrants and low SES kids in this school compared to some parts of eastern Fairfax county, so there are always some who turn their noses up at it.

There appear to be no other teachers at our local school than in the neighboring schools with lower class sizes. No math specialist for instance. I don't understand why the size is a problem every year. There are a couple of other specialists like occupational therapy but there are also some severely disabled children. I wouldn't think those teachers would count against a classroom teacher. And either way, why should the classroom teachers be anything except what the law requires?

Class size isn't simply figured by the ratio of students:classroom teacher. Other staff figure into that equation. Every class in a school could have 30 students, but the formula that's used won't show a student:teacher ratio of 30:1.

Class sizes were increased a couple of years ago. They tried to fix it last year, but only managed to fix some schools. It could be that overcrowding wasn't a problem before.

11:59 I don't think it has to be one or the other. VA state law gave caps for a reason. To follow the law, there is always a way. This overcrowding is only happening at a few schools. FCPS had thought $2 million would get all classrooms under 30, but it may be $4 million that would since Wolftrap still had overcrowding. It's not like every school needs to be fixed. They had a $55 million surplus this year. If they feel it's important or have to comply with the law, they will find a way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7:40 Reading is my primary concern with large class sizes as well. There are 30 students in my child's 2nd grade. How is the teacher going to be able to discuss books with all of them?

They do it in small group sessions of 5 or 6 students at a time. The students rotate through various things.

Ideally that would work, but in reality it doesn't. We have 29-30 students in our fourth grade classes. We have them for half a day. Even if I meet with groups of 5-6, I often can only meet with one group a day and still have time to teach the class. Add in behavior issues and it gets even tougher.

It's really hard to argue that the poor kids should not get services before your kid. FCPS doles out lots of things in order of highest % reduced lunch fee students. That translates into our school being last or near last for everything. It's not the same as saying: "Hey, HS GPAs are screwing all of our kids!" That complaint turned out to be true and/or an easy fix.

Anonymous wrote:Where does it say "district wide"? Who makes the determination whether it's the county, district, or school level that has to adhere to these standards? Why not at the school level? They may be a lot rich parents complaining, although I don't consider myself rich, however if it's against the law, it's against the law. It seems the law needs to be clarified.

Talk to your School Board member. If there was an easy or moderately hard way to get around the activist parents of SLEEP and the ones who successfully changed the HS grade point calculation would have found it already.

My child had a large class last year as well and I believe only got to read with the teacher once a week. In a smaller class, wouldn't they have more opportunity to read with the teacher?

Where does it say "district wide"? Who makes the determination whether it's the county, district, or school level that has to adhere to these standards? Why not at the school level? They may be a lot rich parents complaining, although I don't consider myself rich, however if it's against the law, it's against the law. It seems the law needs to be clarified.

Anonymous wrote:Is that legal? I don't see anywhere where the law says it can be "county wide".

District wide then.