Class size: After state board vote Monday, the sky’s the limit
(Updated by me at 10:30 Monday night with interviews with local systems, experts)
The state Board of Education voted Monday to lift all limits on class sizes over the next year in response to the deepening school budget crisis that has already forced thousands of teacher layoffs, the loss of music and arts programs and shorter school years in some Georgia districts.
Described as an emergency response to a worsening financial climate, The 9-2 vote means that Georgia school districts can raise class size by 5five, 10, 15 students — or as many students as they choose — without seeking a waiver from the board or the Department of Education.
The vote essentially guts the prevailing state rules that mandated 23 students or fewer in k-3 and 28 in grades 4-8.
“I want to understand — we are giving school boards the right to decide in any class, in any grade and in any subject matter the ability to have any class size they want?” asked state board member James E. Bostic Jr.
Yes, said state school Superintendent Kathy Cox. “We wouldn’t have the authority to tell them no.”
Entrusted with this new freedom, local school boards can be counted on to act responsibly and not to raise class sizes to levels where students suffer, said Cox.
In the metro Atlanta area, counties contacted Monday said they have no intentions of suddenly supersizing their classes.
“We have got to trust the local school boards are going to do right by their students and by student achievement,” Cox said after a board member balked at eliminating all caps on class size.
Cox pointed out that state funding to schools has been cut by nearly $1 billion by the Legislature in the past year. “We don’t have a choice. We didn’t give them enough money.” “We are not providing the resources for local systems to conduct business as usual.”
But board member Linda M. Zechmann countered that parents and schools expect the state Board of Education to set limits and that the board was abdicating its oversight role in removing any ceiling on how many students can be in a classroom.
“In my experience in the field, people rely on us for boundaries,” she told her fellow board members.
In August, the state board approved a policy allowing school systems to raise class size by two students in k-8 classrooms. However, if a school district wanted a larger increase or wanted to raise class sizes in high schools, it had to seek a waiver from the board, and 106 systems have done so in the past nine months. The waiver process required state Department of Education employees to review the district’s request and performance data and make a recommendation to the board, which Cox described as too time-consuming during a period when cash-strapped districts need to be able to act quickly and decisively on their budgets.
Zechmann offered a motion that would allow schools to raise class sizes only by 20 percent, but it was defeated by her colleagues who felt that any limits would only aggravate already frustrated systems.
“It’s just for one year, one year,” said board member Brian K. Burdette. “We can’t say we are going to give systems more flexibility and then tie their hands.”
The vote represents a setback to an ambitious plan initiated a decade ago to reduce Georgia’s class sizes. In 1998, kindergartens housed 27 children and fourth grade had 33 students. Georgia brought those numbers down considerably, capping kindergarten at 22 students and fourth grade at 28.
Metro counties contacted Monday said they have no intentions of suddenly supersizing their classes.
In the Atlanta area, here’s a look at what school district representatives said Monday after the vote:
* City of Atlanta: “The district’s budget for FY11 has already been developed and approved by the School Board. It includes slight increases in average class sizes for all grade levels, but the resultant class sizes remain within state limits. The district does not anticipate having to use the state’s recent lessening of class size restrictions option at this point,” said spokesman Keith Bromery.
* Clayton County: “As of today, the only class-size change Clayton County Public Schools is planning to implement for 2010-11 is increasing our kindergarten class size from 23 to 25 students. Each kindergarten classroom will be staffed by a teacher and a paraprofessional,” said Clayton schools spokesman Charles White.
* Cobb County: “In Cobb, we anticipated the need to increase class sizes for the coming school year and planned accordingly by seeking waivers last fall and earlier this spring,” said Cobb schools spokesman Jay Dillon. “We do not anticipate a need to increase class sizes further than what we’ve already requested. In fact, after a preliminary review of our current status and the allotment of teachers for next school year, we are confident that the worst fears about overflowing classrooms will not happen in Cobb. Many classes will see a marginal increase of two or three, and in some cases four of five students, but we don’t foresee any overflowing classrooms or unmanageable situations.”
* DeKalb County: “Our budget is already set, and we are raising class sizes by two students,” said DeKalb schools spokesman Dale Davis. “We will take this new state policy under advisement.”
* Fayette County: “We will not take advantage of the new rule for increasing class sizes. We have already set our class sizes to the rule that was implemented last year,” said Fayette schools spokeswoman Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.
* Fulton County: “We have no plans to go to the board and say that we have been given carte blanche now and let’s raise class size even higher,” said Fulton schools spokeswoman Allison Toller. Fulton parents can expect class sizes of 23 or less in the early grades and 30 students starting in fourth, she said. However, if the system was faced with one or two students arriving last minute and pushing class sizes beyond those limits, Toller said Fulton then might take advantage of the new flexibility.
* Gwinnett County: Under a flexibility contract, Gwinnett is not affected by the state board policy as it sets its own class sizes. (The system has announced plans to raise class size next year by one student.)
Georgia is not alone in its abandonment of class size ideals in the face of a depleted state coffers. Over the weekend, 35,000 people showed up at the New Jersey Statehouse to protest the governor’s plan to increase class sizes there. In the Los Alamitos Unified School District in California, the schools are asking parents to donate $225 per child to prevent a jump in class sizes. Texas, which was one of the first states to mandate strict class sizes, is considering getting rid of its 25-year-old standards.
And there is a district-led campaign in Florida to revise a 2002 constitutional amendment capping class sizes at 18 students for kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade, and 25 in high school. The law was being phased in, and districts were supposed to be in full compliance this year.
One of the arguments being made in Texas and Florida is that there is no strong evidence that the expensive, smaller classes lead to improved student performance.
“Teachers and parents and even students are big fans of smaller class sizes, but the research is really not as supportive,” says Susan Walker, policy and research director for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. Research shows the benefits of smaller class size in kindergarten and first grade, says Walker, “but once you get past that, there is really no evidence that it makes a positive impact on student achievement.” More critical in those upper grades is teacher quality, she says.
University of Georgia language and literacy education professor Peter Smagorinsky offered another view: “From the standpoint of an ex-English teacher in three high schools, I can say that the more students you have, the less time you can spend on any one student. Do the math: If you have 120 students [which is a relatively low load] and spend one minute on each every day, that’s two hours of work outside class. Add 50 or 80 more students, and the problem becomes more acute. Now consider the teaching and grading of writing. Let’s say that you spend 15 minutes grading each student essay. That’s 30 hours of grading for 120 students; add 50 more and it’s a whole bunch more.”
I am torn on this decision. I understand that local systems need flexibility but I think the current requirement that class size waivers go through the state causes systems to think carefully before increasing a kindergarten class to 28 kids.
The counter argument is that it should be up to local boards and communities whether they can live with a 28-student kindergarten class, not the state board of education. The deluge of requests for waivers was also taking hundreds of hours of DOE staff time.
I would like to invite state school superintendent candidates to weigh in on this important issue.
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217 comments Add your comment
mom_247
May 24th, 2010
3:57 pm
And after moves like this by the state board of education, more and more families will be moving to charter schools or homeschooling than ever before!
I am SO grateful to be out of the educational field!
Jose Cuervo
May 24th, 2010
4:01 pm
Saul Good makes me giggle
julie
May 24th, 2010
4:09 pm
Sounds like vouchers would be a good solution now. If the parents have more choices it just might cause some competition between the schools and cause them to do better. I bet alot of parents would leave public schools if their tax dollars followed their children. No more overcrowding!!
Killiangsu
May 24th, 2010
4:16 pm
A lot of you have done this to yourselves. You heard from a neighbor that if you called the local tax commissioner that you could get your property taxes lowered, you did, and guess what? You are now paying less property tax (sometimes a decrease of 2 – 4%) which means if you paid $2,500 in property tax last year, and this year you pay $2,400 you saved yourself $100.00. Good for you, now there isn’t enough revenue to pay for education, because most of your property tax goes to the local school districts.
Oh and by the way, unemployment is at an all time high, so less state taxes out of less paychecks.
To the posters that keep complaining about College football and Basketball coaches making over a million a year, you too need to bone up on some facts. At Ga. Tech for example, the coach’s salaries is paid for out of the Athletic Associations. This revenue is generated from Ticket sales, that UGA shirt you bought at Wal-Mart, and TV rights, your tax dollars do not go to them. So if Paul Johnson or Mark Richt get $4.5 Million a year, it’s not because you paid for it unless you paid for a ticket to see the game.
I truly feel bad for all of you teachers that have to teach in these school systems, you are under appreciated and under compensated for the jobs you have to do. You deal with kids whose parents have no interest in their education until that student fails your class and then they blame you, yet they haven’t spent 1 hour helping them with their homework, ensuring they have studied for your tests, or teach them general respect for your position.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:18 pm
Julie….Vouchers? And WHERE is it that you think they’ll get the $$$ to pay for those? The cost per student per district will still be the same. The school systems are BROKE…I’m afraid that vouchers are NOT the answer out of “this” particular problem.
Joel Dockery
May 24th, 2010
4:20 pm
I’ve had about enough of the crap about small class sizes, schools need more money, teachers are heroes crap. Give me a break. It’s just a smokescreen for the real agenda, which is to perpetuate a bureaucracy that cares more about growing in size and influence than about teaching our kids any remotely useful skills for life.
RSC
May 24th, 2010
4:20 pm
There is no logical reason why any school superintendent, let alone any school superintendent within a state ranking dead bottom in education, should be making a salary even half that of the POTUS.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:23 pm
Julie,
Vouchers? A solution? How are those to be PAID for? This is a “budgetary” issue and the “cost per student” in each school district would certainly not be available to pay for vouchers. With at least THIS current problem the school system is facing…paying for vouchers is just not an option.
Jose Cuervo
May 24th, 2010
4:27 pm
Saul good makes me laugh
pw
May 24th, 2010
4:32 pm
Parents please wake up and recognize that the state of Georgia DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE EDUCATION OF YOUR CHILD. They care about their pay packages, education junkets and exit agreements for the Superintendents. YOUR CHILD’S EDUCATION IS NOT CRUCIAL TO THEM. IF IT IS CRUCIAL TO YOU THAT YOUR CHILD BECOME AN EDUCATED ADULT, START EDUCATING YOUR CHILD AT HOME.
Jokester
May 24th, 2010
4:33 pm
My children are in a suburban Atlanta school system. Larger class size is not what these children need. Larger class size will mean “all children left behind”. These teachers are not teaching college classes full of adults, they are teaching children who are in need of 1 on 1 guidance and instruction. THEY ARE CHILDREN!
We need more funding for the schools to allow SMALLER class size. Fund the REAL teachers not the administrators and BOE employees. Programs like gifted are even at high limits, 30 children to1 teacher. How is larger class size going to effectively allow time for our children to maximize their success? What can we do as parents to change this and how can we best advocate for our children on these issues? Cutting languages and exploratory subjects? Yeah, I am sure cutting a few teachers and their salaries is really going to make the change we need…NOT! Staff has been minimized and cuts made from so many places but it is doubtful that the cuts being made even equals the salary of the average Superintendant. CUT FROM THE TOP… that is where the big bucks are… but not where they should be!
Natasha
May 24th, 2010
4:42 pm
No limit to class sizes? Are they SERIOUS? When is the last time these wackadoos were anywhere near the inside of a classroom?
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:44 pm
Here’s a PERFECT example of some of the WRONG kinds of teachers that GA hires (and pays):
http://www.ajc.com/news/teacher-lets-students-wear-534319.html
Jose Cuervo
May 24th, 2010
4:49 pm
Saul Good is hilarious. I hope people realize you are joking.
Rich
May 24th, 2010
4:54 pm
Jokester – I think that the solution is parental involvement. That includes working with the kids outside of class, which I assume you do, but not all parents do. The other thing I would like to see is parent in the classroom. Not the 3-5 parents that are always helping, but the 25 parents that may show up for a meeting with the teacher. A class of 30 students will have about 60 parents (some less and some more), if each parent could spend 3 days in the classroom there would be an improvement in behavior and probably the learning environment.
Einstein
May 24th, 2010
5:08 pm
Perhaps if so much $ wasn’t wasted on the CRCT (many others states decided to drop it, including Texas who invented it) we would not be in this situation.
mfgayan
May 24th, 2010
5:14 pm
The duplication of central office services in this state was disgusting in a good economy. While I usually support local control wherever possible, it’s time to fold the sometimes numerous city school systems into county ones. That’s got to save a huge amount of money.
Scott
May 24th, 2010
5:39 pm
Let me get this straight. You expect the local school boards to do right by the students? This is the same local boards that give raises to the front office staff while freezing teacher pay raises? While giving additional furloughs so the number of days educating the kids is reduced?
These are the same boards that lay off 20+% of the paraprofessional staff and HS teachers due to budget while not laying off a single front office or administrative staff person?
These are the same boards that reduce the budgets of the science, math, etc. departments while giving their own assitants more funds?
Yes, Kathy, we the public can trust that they (and you) will do right by the kids. What a shame!!
spf15
May 24th, 2010
5:42 pm
mfgayan, Re: “numerous city school systems”. Of the 159 counties in Georgia, only 22 have more than one public school system, and only two of those counties support 3 public school systems. There is certainly room to argue that Georgia should combine overhead by combining COUNTIES, but “numerous city school systems” seems to be stretch.
Tony
May 24th, 2010
5:42 pm
The governor and legislature have raped the education budgets during the last eight years. School systems can not make the money appear out of thin air in order to keep class sizes low. While it’s easy to target “overpaid” central office workers, in most systems this would account for only a pittance. As observed in recent articles by AJC there are a couple of exceptions to this, but most school systems do not pay such extremely high salaries and they do not have 10 central office staff for every teacher. Put the blame where it belongs – Governor Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Legislature for not having enough backbone to stand up for the needs of our students.
Fed up former teacher
May 24th, 2010
5:48 pm
It would be very interesting to find out where our elected officials children attend school.
In Gwinnett here are some salaries it came from a public website:
J Alvin $387,9340.10 travel expenses $6,659.12
Director of Media 86,754.00
Planning Evaluation $83,840.04
Instructional Supervision $ 65,989.00 travel $2040.48
IS Personnel Support $83,840.04
Instructional Supervisor $116,974.32 travel $1553.67
Human Resources Personnel $77,039.04
Construction Manager $78,371.04
Special Ed. Support $91,845.04 travel $2167.69
Instructional Supervisor $82,506.88 travel $2527.20
Personnel Human Resources $114,010.05 travel $1490.12
Director of Curriculum $159,574.00 travel $3,259.20
Middle school Principal my old evil boss $105,147.00 travel $2496.38
Where are they traveling?
RBN
May 24th, 2010
5:58 pm
When will parents and teachers realize what has happened to Georgia, wake-up and vote these clowns out of office. They happen to be Republican. I don’t care. Elected leaders should care more about the 1.75 million children in public schools than Georgia Power, tobacco companies, and insurance companies. If you want to see how they really work, go on the Georgia Ethics Commision website http://ethics.georgia.gov/Reports/Lobbyist/Lobbyist_ByGroup.aspx , and look under lobbyist reports, type in Georgia Power, and 2009, when they got their billion dollar sweetheart deal. $100 plus dollar meals, concert and ball tickets worth $200 plus to both political parties. Teachers and school children can’t get you in to Chops.
Sadly, only about half the incumbents have any opposotion at all.
Could be the closing period ending so early was a well-timed accident.
Glad
May 24th, 2010
6:09 pm
Glad I’m getting out this year. Don’t know if I’ll be going back to education. Maybe the school systems wouldn’t be in as bad a shape if those not on the front lines weren’t making the big bucks!
sim
May 24th, 2010
6:12 pm
Georgia gets what it deserves, Sonny and his Republican cronies get the rest.
Kira Willis
May 24th, 2010
6:16 pm
Maureen,
I will be happy to be the first candidate to step up to the plate and weigh in on class size.
Genuine local control is a wonderful thing; however, the DOE has once again given “local control” in one area, but has neglected to allow it in others. Given real local control, and not just a money saving option with “local control” engraved on it, schools could be freer to actually give the community what it wants in regard to education: a multi-track diploma, an opportunity to opt out of the new math curriculum, the ability to offer more arts and electives or any other concern for the community school. As a teacher, I am not in favor of increased class sizes simply because I understand how the increase can negatively affect students. Increasing class sizes will only be acceptable if it comes with legitimate local control and a reduction of positions that have little to no contact with students.
As a Libertarian, I am whole-heartedly in favor of local control, but it must be authentic and complete. Can we allow parents and teachers a voice in the way THEIR schools are run? I remember a time when parents and teachers actually participated in local PTAs instead of just writing a check at the beginning of the year or not joining at all. I suspect that the lack of participation is not due to apathy but frustration, a feeling that their concerns have been and will continue to be dismissed. Parents have been pushed out of the schools, allowing local boards of education to become mini-dictators within their respective counties, and parents and teachers feel powerless to step in and offer common sense perspectives.
I believe that the community, not the state, knows what is best for its educational institutions. Genuine local control, genuine local decisions for schools will benefit students.
If the DOE really wants to give counties decision making power and allow the parents, teachers, and community members a voice, then I would agree to the elimination of class size, but it does not; this is a cost saving measure under the guise of giving a voice back to the people. If the school board is willing to give some control to the schools, then the board needs to allow teachers and schools the power to actually run those schools without interference from the state. Larger classes can work but only if teachers, parents and community members truly have control of their children’s education.
As a product of publice school, a teacher in public school, and a parent whose children will attend public school, there is a choice for our children; I would like to be able to be the voice for classroom teachers and parents.
Kira Willis
willisforstatesuper.com
Steve ...
May 24th, 2010
6:22 pm
Everyone has a gripe, but no-one is coming up with ideas! How about home-schooling? How about a small neighborhood group school … with all the out of work teachers, someone could lead the group! How about churches stepping in to help start small groups … that’s all the rage now for Christian learning! How about thinking out side the box?
To add insult, we are soon-to-be empty nesters … can we stop paying school taxes?
Real Concerned
May 24th, 2010
6:24 pm
I say the teachers STRIKE and make the administrators and the board teach the students until they come to their senses. The teachers CAN refuse to accept this!
Steve ...
May 24th, 2010
6:25 pm
Sim … you are an idiot … please do not pass on your genes! Come up with ideas … can you still think without the government telling you what to think? Ask your leader NoBama to spend more money … that’s the ticket … you are an idiot!
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
6:36 pm
Steve….WHY is it again we have no member for education? Obama was running this state, the BOE, and all the local school boards as well…RIGHT???
Oh…I almost forgot…he was running the banks down here and approving all the unsecured loans with no documentation and was building house after house with his developement company as well…ALL the while HE himself… he was giving handouts to GA corporations and huge tax cuts to them to help deplete our tax role…. yup. This is CLEARLY Obama’s fault.
While we’re out it…. how about some small MUSLIM community schools we can set up? Think we can use some tax dollars for those as well?
That’s right folks…you heard it from Steve here first…Obama was running pretty much EVERYTHING in GA for the past 8 years and we all need to blame HIM EXCLUSIVELY for this issue!
Signed,
Epstein’s Mother
C/o Sarah “I quit” Palin and Glenn Beck
Last day of teaching tomorrow
May 24th, 2010
7:05 pm
After struggling to control and teach my overstuffed English classes for the past few years, I’m leaving public education. It’s impossible to teach 32 students with a wide spectrum of abilities and needs, not to mention more than that next year. Plus, grading for 200 students eats up every evening and weekend, and we all know there isn’t pay to compensate for that. I love my students, but all of the fight has been taken out of me. I’m exhausted and very disenchanted.
Started Teaching in 1972
May 24th, 2010
7:09 pm
I challenge ANYone to teach my class for one month. I teach in a very affluent school in Fulton County. However, I have taught lower socio-economic students for over 20 years. I would like the politicians to have to do the federal, state, and local paperwork I have to do to prove my “accountability” while actually teaching. Teaching has become minutiae. After you get the required paperwork done, there’s little time for teaching! Students suffer!! If I could *teach* for five and ten years down the road, instead of five months from now for “The Test,” my students would be so much the better!
Also, where in NCLB or any federal, state, or local policy or edict is the parent or the student held “accountable?”
Didn’t think so! Everything becomes the teacher’s responsibility. Pay for performance? Only when parents and students are also held accountable.
I rest my case.
Diane
May 24th, 2010
7:14 pm
This is why I homeschool. How can any teacher truely teach if the classroom is so packed with students that they can’t even walk by the desk to give help?
Gina
May 24th, 2010
7:22 pm
To Killiangsu, I didn’t ask to have my house reassessed, but Cobb did it anyway. My value just went down 12%. Things are going to be even worse next year when the revenue to the school system gets reduced by all of the reassessments.
jokester
May 24th, 2010
8:29 pm
Rich, I agree with you. You are correct, I am an involved parent. Being involved has made me more frustrated. I have noticed we used to have more parent involvement, but with this delightful economy, we have found more two parent working families which decreases the amount of daily-weekly parent involvement. I agree, parents need to be involved with the education of their children… and that first step might be making to commitment to be involved in some way once a week in a classroom if the teacher wants that kind of parental involvement. A cap at 30 children should be the limit by law in all elementary grades, fewer in grades k-2. Parent involvement benefits not just the students, but the parents as well. An involved parent is an informed parent in more ways than one. Parent involvement is part of a solution, towards the greater good of Early Education, but will not keep class sizes low.
Oh Please
May 24th, 2010
8:43 pm
If every county in GA paid for the education of ONLY that counties students then districts like Cobb may not have had to lay off 700+ employees. Has anyone noticed that Cobb’s contribution to QBE is almost the same as the budget shortfall? So your children in Cobb schools suffer while your Cobb tax money is shipped off to bumble county to pay for educating its students! Whose millage rate is 1/2 of Cobb’s and there are no cuts in that counties education because they just got all of Cobb’s money!!!
QBE needs to go bye-bye…Sonny needs to go Bye-Bye…stop wasting money!
You pay for what you get…Parents would you pay $3.00 a day for your child to go gain an education that no one can ever take away from him or her, to help him or her become productive members of society? Or do you want to pay an average of $60,000 a year to house ONE inmate? Or do you want all your tax money to go to unemployment and food stamps for those future adults who can’t get it now in a class of 40?
Do the math…If I have a class of 40 6th graders and those classes are 50 minutes…each student gets 1.25 minutes of my time each day!! Really? Quality education at its best….
Formerpublic/nowhomeschooler
May 24th, 2010
9:05 pm
As a former public school teacher, class size matters, it is a joy to teach a class of 20-25, stress if there is more… Paperwork is overwhelming, no time to teach…
Now my kids are homeschooled since last year after being overlooked and underestimated at public school. I don’t blame the teachers, they were great and were overwhelmed! Now that the school year has been cut to 175 days and larger class size I know I made the right decision!
PARENTS! Consider Georgia Cyber Academy, virtual PUBLIC homeschool.
@ Fed up former teacher
May 24th, 2010
9:10 pm
Wow! Your employees are cheap. You should see DeKalb Schools!
Julian
May 24th, 2010
9:22 pm
Dear Hairy Dog 44, Unfortunatey, I’ve been on the receiving end of their messages so I do what I’m taking about. The general comments on their FB posts are “Im sick of these kids,” “I need a drink” “Who wants so to go out tonight.” I know one teacher particular who found a way around websites being blocked. What is 20% for the downpayment on my house and how do I calculate it. WTF?. The teachers I know do not have the educations or creditials to begin to teash kids anything beyond basic colors.
My credentials, for the record, I work in the corporate world and have earned an MBA and I working a second masters. I’m definately not ignorant, just speaking from experience and behavior I have witnessed from teachers in several counties.
RIF'd Teacher
May 24th, 2010
9:27 pm
For those teachers that lost our jobs this spring, this means that there will not be new classrooms created after the Fall 10-day count. The chances of being hired back later this summer or early fall just dropped dramatically.
@ Julian
May 24th, 2010
9:39 pm
I worked in corporate and education. I remember being amazed in the late 70s when I moved from education to corporate that I didn’t have to save paper clips. Wow! There’s an unlimited supply of paperclips.
In sales, I came to appreciate the “50 pound phone” as hefted it to cold call customers. I did fine and made a lot of money, but one casualty is I despised talking on the phone at night – even to friends. And I was so tired of sucking up to customers in the day that I began to think I would give anything never to have to put a smile on my face again. Always pleasant, the customer is always right, my product is the greatest even if it isn’t – business has it’s downsides just like teaching.
Actually, there are pros and cons to both worlds. Unless you’ve worked in both, it’s hard to understand the frustration of each world.
Drifter
May 24th, 2010
9:40 pm
Maybe now I’ll be able to talk my spouse who is now teaching into returning to a career where she can make decent money. You can’t discipline the students, you can’t get rid of the problems and you get practically no support from the do-nothing administrators. And don’t waste your time talking to the parents. Unlike in my day, their child is always a victim. (Note to parents – if you’ve been called into conferences because of discipline problems, you’re the problem).
Just when you think we’ve hit bottom, the state starts digging. If you’ve got children in public schools, you need to start looking for a way to fund a real education for them.
May 2010 News « read…write…eat…drink
May 25th, 2010
12:34 am
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May 25th, 2010
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May 25th, 2010
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Science Teacher
May 25th, 2010
7:15 am
I sat in a meeting yesterday and was told that basically there was nothing we could do to remove disruptive students from the room. Trying to meet AYP means that the students have the power and the know it.
adam
May 25th, 2010
7:41 am
Hairydawg44, you hit the nail on the head. !!! Good for you.
Limits on Class Size Removed | The Atlanta Post
May 25th, 2010
8:20 am
[...] Read More… Click here to cancel reply. [...]
Lew
May 25th, 2010
8:23 am
Nobody seems to be focusing on the fact that the state has cut funding to local school systems for eight consecutive years now. Do the math! Local school systems are not receiving full funding for anything. Sonny and crew will have reduced the state’s share for public education by close to FOUR BILLION DOLLARS by the end of the FY 11 Budget cycle. Why aren’t you critics focusing on where the problem originated?
Spec. Ed. Teacher On Hiatus
May 25th, 2010
9:43 am
As a special education teacher, I am very curious to see how this will eventually impact class sizes for special education classes, ESOL, and gifted classes. All of which, I believe, are protected by federal laws governing their class sizes. I know, for example, that with special education, the class size is based on the disabilities at hand. (For example, you WANT a smaller teacher-student ratio for a class for behavior disorders, verses a class for students with specific learning disabilities.) However, how -for example- will this play out for classes that are co-taught?
I am forever glad that my daughter was born when she was (spring of ‘09), so I was able to become a temporary SAHM… I loathe the day when I must re-enter the teaching workforce, in order to send my daughter to a good school. I pray every day that one will still exist by the time she reaches first grade…
Not telling today
May 25th, 2010
10:06 am
Drifter–I was called in for behavior issues. I was NOT the problem. The administrators had known me for years and knew that I worked hard to attempt to get the child to behave. Turns out she had some issues going on that kept her from learning, even learning the basics of behavior I was attempting to teach her —this happens with “high functioning” austism too–the child is considered a behavior issue, blame the parents, find out the child is hardwired that way.
In my case a very smart “old school” administrator who had spent years in a classroom had a brillant idea. She said, let’s see what the child is really telling us. She (the administrator) said the child is telling us she is not capable of processing this information at this time, lets DEMOTE her to the grade below and see what she does. Well we did and child responded immediately. At the same time I found a wonderful doctor who rooted out her issue in learning–one who thinks that ADHD is over diagnosed by the way. Again immediate results–a calmer child, a happier child, one who is actually enthousiastic about learning. 18 months later, this child has FINALLY learned the rules of behavior and more importantly executes them. She is on par with her true peers even if they are not chronologically the same.