Classroom sizes

[Disneycrazymom]

My son is going into 5th grade.
One class is 12, the other has 13.



Yes, this is a public school.

(Y2K babies).

DD is also going into 5th grade and her class will have 13 this year. Private school. They have always been the smallest class in the school. I think it really is because of Y2K!

 

[JustineMarie]

My one DD is going into 4th and she will have 32 kids in her class. She had 29 in her class last year. It's a lot of kids for one teacher.

 

[daughtersrus]

I know a lot of school systems are in a financial bind across the country and have had to make many, many budget cuts. Unfortunately, including teachers. Our class sizes are just starting to come out around here and I am curious if it is like this across the country. One of our local schools will have 29 kindergarten students per classroom with no classroom aides. They will have a tutor in the classroom, but that is just for students who need extra help. Grades 1-3 right now are sitting with 26-27 students per classroom with three teachers sharing one aide. At a friends school, the kdg. classes have 33 children per class. Normally, around here, there are about 20-21 children per early childhood classroom, so this is a big change for us. Unfortunately, it is the children who will suffer because of these cuts. How can one teacher spend any kind of individualized time with students when he/she has 30 students?

Many of the classes here have over 30 kids. Some may have a para pro but only because they have a student(s) with an IEP that dictates a para pro. If not, only classes with 35 or more students will have a para pro.

 

[cheap traveler]

My school had to increase class sizes from Kindergarten to senior year - we are up from an average of 16-17 per class to 20 per class. Im quite happy that we were able to maintain the numbers despite being in a fairly low income are of NY

 

[Parksfamily5]

My children go to a rural public school. My DS kindergarten class this year has 17 students. I don't know how many are in my daughters 3rd grade class. I do know that they have the most students out of any grade and that is 140. The max at our school is 22 per classroom and I think that is an Ohio law.

 

[thebeesknees]

My kids are starting in a new charter school this fall. Their classes will have 25 children per class (20 for kindergarten), no aides. There is a huge interest in this school - the waitlist had 2,000 children on it for grades K-5. I am glad the school didn't cave and put another 5 kids per class just to get the money from the state.

 

[Alexander]

We limit our class sizes to 24, no exceptions. We are a private school, so we can establish a waiting list.

In kindergarten, we have a full-time teacher's aid regardless of how many kids we have. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades have part-time teacher aides regardless of class size.

 

[Mom2micayla]

25 is our max in the district. My kids are in K (23), 2nd (24) and 3rd (23). So close to max, but could still take a few if necessary.

 

[taylor3297]

At our school they try to make sure the younger kids have a smaller class size. My daughter had about 20 kids in her class she was in kindergarten. My son last year (4th grade) had 35. It was terrible. The teacher had little control over the class and my son fell behind. There was an aide but with no teacher qualifications. I have to agree with the previous poster about the teacher too though. While I really think his teacher was a great person I don't think he could handle the amount of kids like the other fourth grade teacher could. Looking back I should have requested the other teacher. This year they added a 4/5 split class so sizes should be okay again.

We have always had large class sizes here even before budget cuts. Our county is always asking for waivers. Last year dd had 25 student in her 1st grade class. I assume it will be the same but will find out for sure next Monday.

As to whether it is all on the teachers shoulders on controlling the classroom there could be 2 kids in the class that makes it difficult. The other kids could be feeding off the 2 difficult children.

For example, my last year teaching 8th grade math, I had 40 in Algebra, 38 in each of my pre-aglebra classes (which I had two classes or pre-algebra) and 36 in my regular math class. The dynamics in each class was so different. The 40 Algebra kids were much easier to manage than the 36 in the regular math class. Once the 20 day count was over, and another team was created, my numbers dropped to 33, 34, and 24 repectively. Let me tell you the class of 24 were lively and there were some days I wanted to pull my hair out.

 

[ekatiel]

Texas state law allows a max of 22 students in K-4th grade classes. After 4th grade, the limits go up (by a lot, maybe to 36??). Districts can get around the limits by getting special waivers to increase their class size. When I taught elementary school, our district always stayed within the 22 limit. DS's kinder teacher/class will be posted on Thursday. Hopefully, it will be under the 22 kid limit! --Katie

 

[Schachteles]

Our second grade classes this year are 31 kids!

 

[Piper]

In my district Pre-K is morning & afternoon classes of 20 kids each with an aide shared between 4 teachers.

If you have an inclusion class (I did) they can add as many students as the administration wants.

One year I had 5 extra in the morning and 6 extra in the afternoon--2 of the afternoon students went to kindergarten in the morning and my class in the afternoon. Both of them were finally put in a life skills class in first grade along with another child who was WC bound and functioning on an 18 month old level. Two of the children were on the autism spectrum and another child went into a structured class for kindergarten because he was emotionally disturbed. The others just had language delays.

This year, I am staying home with my puppy--I retired June4th!

 

[wdwfan16]

I know a lot of school systems are in a financial bind across the country and have had to make many, many budget cuts. Unfortunately, including teachers. Our class sizes are just starting to come out around here and I am curious if it is like this across the country. One of our local schools will have 29 kindergarten students per classroom with no classroom aides. They will have a tutor in the classroom, but that is just for students who need extra help. Grades 1-3 right now are sitting with 26-27 students per classroom with three teachers sharing one aide. At a friends school, the kdg. classes have 33 children per class. Normally, around here, there are about 20-21 children per early childhood classroom, so this is a big change for us. Unfortunately, it is the children who will suffer because of these cuts. How can one teacher spend any kind of individualized time with students when he/she has 30 students?

The same way that many learned, including myself, years ago. We never had aids in our class rooms either. Our classes were usually 30 kids. We learned not to cause problems in the class. We learned to wait our turn. We learned we are not the most important person on the planet. We learned that if we caused trouble we went to the principles office and then got detention. The surprising thing is our classes were leading the world and the classed now are lagging the world. IMHO this is a good thing. Time to return to our roots in education.

 

[Kathi OD]

The same way that many learned, including myself, years ago. We never had aids in our class rooms either. Our classes were usually 30 kids. We learned not to cause problems in the class. We learned to wait our turn. We learned we are not the most important person on the planet. We learned that if we caused trouble we went to the principles office and then got detention. The surprising thing is our classes were leading the world and the classed now are lagging the world. IMHO this is a good thing. Time to return to our roots in education.

Not that I'm advocating a return to this, but I'm so old there were over 60 in my first grade class!

 

[3Minnies2Mickeys]

In Florida, there are class size limits. For grades K-3 the limit is 18 and for grades 4-8 the limit is 22. My daughter is in 4th grade this year and the class is actually a 3rd/4th split class. There are 22 in the class with one teacher and one aid. The aid just happens to be a credentialed teacher. Not sure why she is working as an aid but we are happy to have her in the classroom. My son is in 2nd grade and they have 16 so far in their class.

Wendi

 

[marcemc]

In my DS Kindergarden class there are a total of 20 kids.

In my DS 2nd grade class there are a total of 18 kids.

They both attend they same school. It's a charter school, 2 classrooms per grade only.

 

[Alexander]

The same way that many learned, including myself, years ago. We never had aids in our class rooms either. Our classes were usually 30 kids. We learned not to cause problems in the class. We learned to wait our turn. We learned we are not the most important person on the planet. We learned that if we caused trouble we went to the principles office and then got detention. The surprising thing is our classes were leading the world and the classed now are lagging the world. IMHO this is a good thing. Time to return to our roots in education.

It would be wonderful if this were possible! Today, according to the parents, their children are always right and the teachers are always wrong (no, not all parents, but enough of them).

I have a comic strip that shows 1960 and a boy received an F on his report card and his parents were yelling at him. The next frame shows 2010 and a boy has received an F on his report card and his parents are yelling at the teacher. It sums up society today perfectly!

 

[wdwfan16]

It would be wonderful if this were possible! Today, according to the parents, their children are always right and the teachers are always wrong (no, not all parents, but enough of them).

I have a comic strip that shows 1960 and a boy received an F on his report card and his parents were yelling at him. The next frame shows 2010 and a boy has received an F on his report card and his parents are yelling at the teacher. It sums up society today perfectly!

Sad but true.

 

[minniebeth]

Emerging research says the quality of the teacher is more important to student learning than the number of students in a classroom. I would want to know more about the teacher before I got too concerned.

I'm sorry, but any teacher who has had 27 plus children in their classroom would think this research is silly. While I agree that the quality of the teacher can make a huge difference in a large classroom, common sense would debunk this research.

 

[Alexander]

I'm sorry, but any teacher who has had 27 plus children in their classroom would think this research is silly. While I agree that the quality of the teacher can make a huge difference in a large classroom, common sense would debunk this research.

The number of kids in a classroom is really such a small part of the equation. The needs of those kids is the bigger part. If you have no kids with special needs, and you have kids who are well behaved, 27 is very doable.

I had 32 one year in 6th grade and it was the absolute dream class. They graduated from HS this year and the Valedictorian and Salutatorian were both in that class of 32. In the top 25 of the graduation class there were another 6 from that class. 30/32 received some type of college scholarship. They were a dream class and so easy to teach. I completely understand this is far from the norm!