How many students in a class?

[daughtersrus]

The Chicago Teachers Union is filing a law suite to prevent CPS from raising the number of students in a class from an average of 30 to 35. From my understanding, the basis of the lawsuit is that it would violate fire safety laws.

To me, 35 students is a lot in a class but I'm sure that with budget cuts, CPS probably isn't the only district trying to do this. The younger students seem to need more 1:1 attention and grading homework assignments for large classes in the older grades seems like it would be difficult. Not to mention differentiating instruction to meet the individual needs of students with and IEP.

I just don't see how this will benefit the students but maybe I'm missing something.

How many students in a class is reasonable?

 

[eliza61]

Waaayy to many kids in a class, IMO. Can you imagine 35 3rd graders. I feel bad for the poor kid who many not learn as fast as the other kids.

That's was one good thing about having a special needs kid, I was guaranteed no more than 6 kids in my son's classrooms.

 

[KristiMc]

Wow - I think 30 is too many. The classes here are usually between 22-25.

 

[Nancyg56]

In our town it is 18 to 20.

 

[punkin]

Wow - I think 30 is too many. The classes here are usually between 22-25.

I agree. Depending on the grade, even 25 is too much.

 

[monkeybug]

Wow! I think that's way too many!
Would the teachers have an aide?

 

[valeriemouse]

I teach in a private school and we cap classes at 18 (and many classes have less than that even) which is a wonderful environment. With that said, I can understand how public schools cannot do that. I would say 25 kids should be max.
A classroom with 35 children seems like it would be more like a circus

 

[DisneyJen0504]

25 is usually too much depending on the grade. I teach 20 kindergarteners all with varying degrees of ability, some high, some so low they will likely be tested and classified in 1st grade. Teaching 25 or more would make it nearly impossible to do my job well.

 

[SpecialK]

I had 35 eighth-graders in a class and it does not work. Every student suffers because you don't have time to get to know them as individuals, especially if you have a couple of discipline problems in the mix.

 

[mumom95]

Our elementaries try and have no more than 25 in a class. My son's 4th grade class this past year had 29 in it, but 4 of them were special ed students that were only there during homeroom and science, and there was an EA with them during those times.

I think 35 is way too many. I'm sure they need to make cuts. My first question if I was a tax payer in that city would be "what cuts have you made at the district central office to help the budget".

My district just announced a bunch of cuts for the upcoming school year, a lot of teachers lost their jobs (they went from block schede to traditional schedule at the high school, so fewer teachers are needed). While I agree with most of the cuts they made, my issue was that they only made one cut at the district office.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

I'm pretty sure 25 is the max here but most classes have 18-22. I remember that when ds was in Kindergarten the classes were large in the beginning of the year and we were told that if a few more students enrolled, the state would pay for another teacher because the classes would be too large. I think it took a week....then a few more to get a teacher placed...and then they took 4 or 5 kids from each class to make up the additional teacher.

 

[Trish Bessette]

35

My DD's entire 7th grade is only 12 students

 

[TwinsinCA]

In CA we used to have classes capped at 20 for K-3 and then 32 I think once they hit 4th grade. Not sure when they get to middle/high school what the limits might be.

It was a HUGE jump to go from 20 to 32 this past year. The room was very crowded. And the amount of homework and tests to grade was just endless!


But with the state so broke they have had to increase class sizes in many districts. Luckily ours has been able to stick to the 20/32 for the most part. But I won't be surprised if they have to raise that at some point.

 

[RitaE]

That happened to one of my sons his final year at the Public school. I think they ended up with 33 but could have went to 35.

It was a nightmare not only because it was way too many students for a 4th grade teacher to handle. The classrooms in that building were really only designed for about 20 to 25 kids. 15 extra bodies and 15 extra desks and you literally could not move in there. You couldn't even walk around the classroom it was so jammed packed.

 

[abdmom]

In the Twin Cities area in MN, most middle and high schools have up to 35 in a class. Some have 40. Kindergarten starts with about 18 and by 5th grade, they're up to 30.

 

[clori]

My kids go to public school. I believe I've read the max is 27 kids. My 4th grader has 20 kids in her class. My kindergartener has 16 kids in her class with a full time aide. (school is out here June 21st). There are 3 classes per grade. For next year I haven't heard much about class size increases yet but I've heard they may eliminate the librarian and try to charge for full day kindergarten (full time kindergarten is free and is all that is offered).

 

[daughtersrus]

I think that part of what bothers me is that the school district is going to be spending money to defend the lawsuit when they claim that they have to increase class size for budget reasons.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

I teach in a private school and we cap classes at 18 (and many classes have less than that even) which is a wonderful environment. With that said, I can understand how public schools cannot do that. I would say 25 kids should be max.
A classroom with 35 children seems like it would be more like a circus

Which is why I decided that I will try my best to put my kids in private school.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Ours started at 38 last year, then the school system hired another teacher the first week of school and knocked it down to 30. They have help from student teachers too. This is the 4th-5th grade level.

 

[marcyinPA]

In our town it is 18 to 20.

Same here, for our school. We have a small school in a large district. We only have 2 of each grade level in our elementary school. This year, there were 19 fifth graders in each fifth grade class.

Some of the other elementary schools in the district have four of each grade level. I think they try to keep the class sizes around 25 or less though.