Have classes grown this year in your Georgia district?
What are class sizes like in your school? (AJC file)
I have been getting comments and emails about larger class sizes this year, including an Atlanta parent whose middle school students had 43 students in her French class in a portable classroom.
(The parent wanted to know if it was legal to shoehorn that many adolescents, some of whom had to sit on the floor, in a portable classroom, and I am still waiting to hear about that. I am assuming that the French class has fallen in size by this point.)
DeKalb school board member Nancy Jester has also been getting complaints from her constituents about rising class sizes and sent out this note to some of them:
I’ve received a number of emails about the class size limits for this school year.
I received a terrific question about my thoughts on our class size limits. Specifically, I was asked to reconcile why I voted against both the class size increases and a millage rate increase. The question assumes that in order to keep class size at last year’s limits, one would need to increase the millage rate.
I disagree. According to data submitted to the Georgia Department of Education by the school districts, Henry County, Cherokee County, Cobb County, Decatur City, Forsyth County, Clayton County, Marietta City and Fulton County, all spend less per student on general administration than DeKalb and have lower millage rates. (Here is her documentation.)
Interesting to note from the DOE data that Jester posted that APS and DeKalb outspend other districts on administration costs. DeKalb spends $618 per pupil; Atlanta spends $681. In comparison, Fulton spends $570 and Gwinnett spends $602. It would seem that DeKalb and Fulton would align in their admin costs, given their size similarity.)
What are you seeing in your districts in terms of class size?
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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103 comments Add your comment
CY 2.0
August 15th, 2012
7:49 pm
I teach 9th grade English, and I have between 34 and 36 students in my class. The room is so full of desks that there is literally no room to move around. This makes everything harder. I can’t have the kids come up to the board like I would normally do because they can’t get to the front of the room without tripping over someone. I can’t monitor students as effectively because I can’t get around all the desks. I can’t get to some students to work with them one-on-one because I can’t get to their desks. I love teaching, but this kind of stuff makes it so much harder to be an effective teacher. I don’t even want to think about our first fire drill. And this doesn’t even get into all the other things that other teachers have brought up (more paper work, more grading, more accommodations, etc.). I can deal with extra work. I shouldn’t have to deal with a room so jam packed that we can hardly breathe.
EdDawg
August 15th, 2012
8:03 pm
Teaching has become an exercise in herding cats!
MM
August 15th, 2012
8:18 pm
Put academic coaches back in the classroom. That would help class size!
Cmomteach
August 15th, 2012
8:21 pm
32 fourth graders in a single wide modular. This includes EIP, ESOl and special ed students. 25 years ago the students were placed in self contained classes and ability grouped.
Once Again
August 15th, 2012
8:27 pm
You should just take your money and patronize another provider of educational services – just like you do when a store, restaurant, cafe, etc. doesn’t meet your needs.
Oh that’s right. Such a remedy would require a free market in education in which parents paid for their own child’s education and chose among a multitude of varied choices of educational services. But that’s not what we have. We have a one-size fits all government monopoly that doesn’t let you take your money and leave.
Well, if this is what you support, there is little complaining to do. The government doesn’t treat you like a customer. They don’t have to please you. They don’t have to care about your complaints.
They get your money and you voluntarily give them your support and your children. How’s that working out for you???
CY 2.0
August 15th, 2012
8:41 pm
A. We all pay for education. Granted, we can’t take our money and leave, but we still have a say in how it is spent. Vote!
B. There is a problem with free market education. Education affects everything from property values to the future growth of the community, so we can all benefit from it whether or not we have children in the system. If parents have to pay on an individual basis, then we could end up with less money since not everyone will be paying into the system. Some say this is a good thing. After all, why pay for a service you are not using. Again, though, the problem with that logic is that you don’t realize that you don’t have to use the service directly to benefit from it. It’s like the saying goes, either pay for education now or jail later.
another comment
August 15th, 2012
8:44 pm
Every teacher that voted for Sonny Purdue and Deal over Roy Barnes to blame for these over crowded classrooms. You were afraid of something called tenure, how did that work out??? My daughters classes only had 17 kids in them with Roy Barnes.
As long as all the teachers and the rest of the middle class vote against themselves by voting Republican, we are only dooming our children.
MiltonMan
August 15th, 2012
8:48 pm
“Every teacher that voted for Sonny Purdue and Deal over Roy Barnes to blame for these over crowded classrooms. You were afraid of something called tenure, how did that work out??? My daughters classes only had 17 kids in them with Roy Barnes.
As long as all the teachers and the rest of the middle class vote against themselves by voting Republican, we are only dooming our children.”
Roy Barnes dumped on the teachers when he was governor and the teachers Association – NEA still came out to support Barnes. Teaches are idiots for still voting democratic.
Cliff Claven
August 15th, 2012
8:52 pm
My classes are up to 34. That’s up from 28 I had when I came to this particular school district 5 years ago. One poor gentleman has 39 right now.
CY 2.0
August 15th, 2012
8:54 pm
Non-teachers are idiots for not really researching the issues in education and making an informed decision when they mark the ballot. Blame teachers all you want, but we are not the only ones who vote.
Also, voting straight democrat or straight republican is just foolish. Vote for whoever has the best long term solutions. Don’t vote for labels.
Ready to be done with DCSS
August 15th, 2012
9:03 pm
when I mentioned to an acquaintennace that 4th grades all over the county seemed large, she attributed that to no-CRCT testing in 4th. The schools may try to make 3rd and 5th grade classes a bit smaller because they both take the CRCT. I think the school only has to meet an average for classroom size.
mommamonster
August 15th, 2012
9:26 pm
@Another comment…AMEN!!!
The Deal
August 15th, 2012
9:35 pm
Definitely a leap, not creep.
One child’s up from 19 to 30. Another is the same but only because there are a ton of special ed. The other from 19 to 25. More work and less pay for those teachers and much less time for each student to receive any individual help.
Who will be left to teach our kids?
August 15th, 2012
9:49 pm
Not only have APS classes grown for core subjects, but APS has changed all of the high schools (except for Carver Early College..with whom they don’t dare tamper with) from a 4×4 schedule whereby students would take 4 courses the first semester and 4 courses second semester to a 4×8 schedule where students take four 90 min. courses on A day and four 90 min. courses on B day…which means that students take all 8 courses at the same time. This schedule was tried a few years ago and about 40% of the ninth grade students failed 2 or more classes. Ninth grade
APS students are in NO WAY prepared for this kind of work load. Then why the change??? Because fewer teachers are needed to teach the 4×8 schedule. APS teachers now have double the academic work load. How can APS teachers be expected meet the individual needs of ALL students under these horrendous working conditions? It was rumored that teachers who had heavy failure rates during the previous school year were among the first teachers to be tossed into the reduction in force pool. What does APS think is going to happen this school year? Guess what? They expect test scores to increase..and if they don’t the teachers with high student failure rates will surely be tossed into next year’s RIF pool…Who will be left to teach our children? Does APS intend to re-train a new crop of TFA teachers every two years to replace these teachers since about 70% of TFA leave after they’ve fulfilled the 2 year commitment? At some point APS is going to realize that economics has its limits…surely Supt. Davis is familiar with the law of diminishing returns.
msteacherlady
August 15th, 2012
9:59 pm
I teach Middle School in Cobb. Here are my class sizes (these students are present in class; none of the “no-shows” are included in these numbers):
1st period: 43
2nd period: 39
4th period: 44
5th period: 37
6th period: 41
MS MAN
August 15th, 2012
10:00 pm
Class Sizes are bigger in all counties because there is less money. I also really don’t understand people who claim they can remember how many kids were in their class in 1975. I don’t know any kids that pay attention to that nearly 40 years later. Also remember in 1975 schools were largely still segregated (de facto if not de jure)
TuckerMom
August 15th, 2012
10:13 pm
THS is overcrowded and short teachers. According to Mr. Walker on the school board, South Dekalb is okay. We don’t have enough seats for some kids in classes and have to borrow from others. They can’t find a physics teacher! Someone needs to look into this!
Also it was quite interesting that when you called some of the DeKalb High Schools for registration of returning students most said Yes bring proof and others said no. Where is the consistency? It should be the same across the whole district!
TimeOut
August 15th, 2012
10:16 pm
It takes more time to grade ten more essays per class. It takes more time to call 2 more parents of misbehaving students per class. It takes more time to give ten more students immediate feedback during class concerning their responses or contributions in this subject. I am a very good teacher. Sometimes, I amaze even myself. But, I am neither martyr nor miracle-worker. When the teaching profession is a truly coveted one, we will also see a lessening of the conditions that create such messes as we now have. It won’t solve everything, but it will make a huge difference.
Once Again
August 15th, 2012
10:24 pm
CY 2.0 – Nice socialist justification for your approval of the theft of money on your children’s behalf (or on behalf of your egalitarian ideal). Sorry, but your arguments are hollow. Property values are only impacted because of the way educational services through the govenrment monopoly are concentrated in huge schools. If they were delivered by hundreds of much smaller businesses in the local area there would always be quality education in EVERY neighborhood, rather than just in the “better” neighborhoods.
And as for the classic socialist “everyone benefits so everyone should pay” crap that is also a hollow argument. Yes, education IS unbelievably important. So is eating, so in housing, so is clothing. We don’t rely on the government to provide these to everyone. The Soviets did and they all were chronically in line for limited food and lived 10 to a 1 bedroom apartment. So why do we treat education the way the Soviets treated food and housing distribution (with the same results I might ad). Since we all (myself included) think that education is that important, why would we want to have government run every aspect of it – and voting doesn’t change anything – maybe you have noticed? Because it is SO important, it will always have enormous value and businesses will always strive to provide the best quality at the best price for everyone – without government force, coersion, or theft through taxation. That would include charity options, scholarship options and the like as well.
I absolutely do think that we all benefit from everyone in society having a great education. That is absolutely why I want government to have NOTHING to do with education at all! Government is a failure. The premise is based on the immoral act of theft and force. I can think of no better mechanism within our society or ever created by the human species that has lifted up so many or improved the quality of life for so many than the competitive free market. In fact there is absolutely nothing in human history that has done more for so many.
Why do we condemn society’s children by preventing them from benefitting from this great “invention” of man? And please do not even pretend to think that what we currently have is a free market in education. Professional licensure laws, property taxation for funding, business license regulations, and countless others just on the delivery of educational services, not to mention the Federal Reserve destruction of the purchasing power of the dollar, the repressive income tax, the ADA, and I could go on and on have NOTHING to do with a free market. Sorry.
Everyone would benefit from the end of government involvement in education. It is only ignorance and fear (both driven by the brainwashing of those with the most to lose) that keeps society from embracing such a valuable change and finally realizing what a complete and abject failure government education has become. I mean really, do you honestly think ANYTHING is really every going to change if we maintain the status quo (trick question)?
Once Again
August 15th, 2012
10:34 pm
TimeOut – Socialist systems operate outside of a traditional value/price mechanism. That is exactly why teachers are not valued in the government education model. There is no price structure. Money is not earned through delivery of valued service to the customer. Money is taken from every citizen based on the value of their property. The person who values a great teacher has no ability to seek out and pay accordingly for that valued service. The best they can hope for is to be financially able to purchase or rent property within a district that MAY have a good teacher or two (or even more) and hope and pray that the district lines are not changed, teachers do not leave, differnt teachers are assigned to their child, etc.
A person cannot VALUE something if the cost is basically 0 dollars. Value inherently has a cost/benefit/tradeoff component. The government socialist system has none of those. School administrators, school boards, legislators, etc. make decisions based on political factors, NOT value or price-based factors. Ludwig von Mises described the inherent failure of Socialism in his famous book on the subject back in the 1930’s. The fundamentals of this argument have not changed.
You can ask for parents and society to VALUE teachers all you want. It will matter not ONE BIT because values do not exist in a socialist system.
You will only get what you wish when parents are responsible for the costs of their children’s education and there is a completely free, competitive marketplace delivering educational services.
HighSchoolTeacher
August 15th, 2012
10:55 pm
Class size is definitely up! I have a class with 39 students. The class is an inclusion class and that added 5 more for a total of 44. I am in a Modular and I have 33 desks. I have to borrow chairs from teachers who MAY have some to loan. Certainly overcrowded!
HS Math Teacher
August 15th, 2012
10:59 pm
There are a lot of statements about data from people who have not been in a classroom since they were students.
Before you spout data, maybe you should visit a local school and do some volunteer time.
Until you do that several times, you are clueless about was trying to teach a large class is all about.
You find yourself being referee, counselor, policeman, and maybe the teacher of your subject last.
I was in class yesterday and I’ll walk back into one tomorrow, and every school day for the rest of the school year.
Save your self-righeous comments about voters’ political standing until you have seen for yourself what a class of 30-plus looks and acts like.
Our democracy will not exist without educated citizens. Cherry picking students for charter schools will not provide the need solution.
Take a look in the mirror.
William Casey
August 15th, 2012
11:21 pm
@ONCE AGAIN: I haven’t read all the posts but am assuming that your “freedom model” will allow the consumer to make the choice to buy no education at all. Am I correct?
BTW: Socialism DOES have values. You simply don’t like them.
FYI: There are many types of “socialism.” Which are you referencing?
William Casey
August 15th, 2012
11:26 pm
@MS MAN: I may be old but, I’m not senile. I don’t remember the exact number of students in each of my classes. I DO remember that we considered anything under 30 to be a small class. Close to 35 was the norm that year.
masr
August 15th, 2012
11:31 pm
WELL SAID Once Again, August 15th, 2012, 8:27 pm and 10:24 pm!
Dekalbite
August 15th, 2012
11:54 pm
Barnes had it right. Set class sizes low and then tell the superintendents they need to figure it out, but they can’t go over these low class sizes. The superintendents had fits, but they pared down the Central Offices and admin and support personnel so class sizes could be low and they could keep state funding. That is the ONLY time in 40 years I have seen the Central Office shrink and money returned to the classrooms. Perdue came in and quickly put a stop to that as he allowed superintendents to raise class sizes and use the extra money to hire all those admin and support personnel back (not just in DeKalb either – there are many other bloated systems although DeKalb is the hog at the trough).
Parents and taxpayers, if you want to see lower class sizes, write or call Deal and ask him to lower the class sizes and then tell the superintendents to figure it out. Believe it or not, they will figure it out if they have to in order to receive their state funding. The superintendent’s will figure out they must reduce the non teaching admin and support side and beef up the teaching side to get those lower class sizes. A win for students.
Dekalbite@William Casey
August 16th, 2012
12:01 am
” I DO remember that we considered anything under 30 to be a small class. Close to 35 was the norm that year.”
But that was with low taxes. Since then the school systems have raised and raised taxes (look at DCSS’s millage of 24 and property values are still high as evidenced by the record number of people appealing their property assessments) and we still have 35 to a class. Can we say the money is really going for students if the taxes are raised but they are still crammed into large classes? Where is the increased tax money going? Isn’t this a valid question?
Deccansoft
August 16th, 2012
7:38 am
The public schools need more teachers, resources and leadership. Charter schools are siphoning off precious resources and money needed by public education.According to the money resources will be there.
http://www.deccansoft.com/
Entitlement Society
August 16th, 2012
8:04 am
@ Once Again
August 15th, 2012
10:24 pm
RIGHT ON!! I’ve learned that one parent can’t change the incredibly broken system and I refuse to let my children be lab rats as these people try in vain to fix a system set up to fail. As a responsible parent, you can only only volunteer so much, serve on so many PTA committees, go on so many field trips, lead so many class projects, participate in so many school fundraisers, correct your teacher’s grammar so many times, contact your Board reps so many times, call your principal so many times. It gets old. You realize you are fighting a losing battle and your children and the ones who are suffering. Each day, week, month, year, spent in a less than desirable classroom environment detracts from his/her overall education experience. You can’t get those days back. It’s exactly why my children will not set foot in a government school and we will sacrifice everything to keep them in a top private school.
Razorburn
August 16th, 2012
8:29 am
60-70 students in PE classes at middle school level in DeKalb County School.
Razorburn
August 16th, 2012
8:29 am
60-70 students in PE classes at middle school level in DeKalb County.
watching, waiting
August 16th, 2012
9:41 am
Just becasue max class sizes are up in DCSS (and elsewhere) doesn’t mean that all classes are jam-packed with that many kids. It all depends on how many there are for each grade/class. If you go above the max numbers in a classes for a grade, you have to add another teacher, meaning that each class for that grade will now be smaller. At my children’s school, I’m seeing a mix of smaller class sizes due to the situation I just described above and larger class sizes because they are just at capacity. The problem with the larger class sizes is that they are packing all those kids into classrooms that are 45 years old and were not designed for so many people. It’s not comfortable. On the plus side, it means not having to add any more trailers. I guess that’s a good thing?
bu2
August 16th, 2012
11:15 am
As with William Casey, I recall in the 60s and 70s, 30 was the norm. I had a 5th grade class with 42 (And I remember that because it really was too many and the teacher was pretty impatient with the students). Now those classroom sizes were comfortable, even with 42. My child had 28 last year in a trailer and it was very tight.
30 worked as teachers were used to that. Children didn’t act up and principals enforced discipline. And yes, there was tracking so kids of the same level were together. Rather than simply complaining about class sizes, the schools should look at how they do things so that it works better.
science teacher
August 16th, 2012
1:13 pm
I have 37 with 12 special education students in one class and 36 in another. My other class is of a nice size. I am supposed to have them doing one lab a week, but is it really safe when we can’t even get to the trash can or pencil sharpener without having to climb over each other?
CY 2.0
August 16th, 2012
6:07 pm
Apparently I am a socialist. Good to know. I’ll make sure to include that on my resume from now on. Out of curiosity, am I also a fascist? What about a Nazi?
Switching to free market education will in no way even things out. It will not ensure that every neighborhood has access to quality education. Poor families simply won’t have the money for the best teachers, buildings, supplies, etc. If anything, it will make the differences in “good” schools and “bad” schools even worse. The poor will get poorer, and the rich will get richer. As usual.
Education as it is now is broken. No question about that. Things MUST change. No question about that, either. But the belief that free market education will not improve things does not make me a socialist.
another comment
August 16th, 2012
7:58 pm
First, the districts are too big in Georgia. One of the good local control Republican’s need to put up a bill both in the House and the Senate to abolish the 158? school district limit in Georgia. We all know that doesn’t work. These huge districts are just a magnet for bloat and waste. They are all about an adult jobs program rather than educating the children. The best districts in the country are the small districts that are 5,000 to 10,000 students that have between 1-2 high schools and their feeder schools. Everything is local. Everyone knows who is who, you have less line skippers, you have less free lunch fraud. Look at how much more successful Marietta, is than Cobb; Decatur City is than Dekalb, the list goes on, Buford, Bremen City. These smaller districts have less busses. Today, I witnessed 5-6 busses pull out of Lake Forrest Elementary on Lake Forest Rd, in Sandy Springs and turn the corner to Northland Drive, every single child on these buses and probably others will get off on this street. If this was a City of Sandy Springs School my bet is 30-40% of the students would be in Walking Distance, but it is Fulton County so they are bussed, doesn’t make sence there are sidewalks.
I am sure that if you got rid of the 158 school cap, we would see Vinings Village asking for Cityhood. There would be a quick request by unicorporated areas to join Vinings and you would see Teasley Elementary become its first School. You would also quickly see a new Middle School and High School for Vinings that would most likely pick up alot of the students that are currently in $22K a year Private Schools. You would see Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Chamblee and Tucker probably all start their own schools quicker that anyone could blink. Of course the Biggest Fear is that Buckhead would want to breakaway from Atlanta first as a City, then as a School District.
Dekalbite@inman park boy
August 16th, 2012
8:43 pm
“According to so-called “hard data” there is little or no evidence that once a child is beyond secord or third grade that class size has any appreciable affect on student learning”
Have you had classes of 39 and 40 students? That is what Lakeside High School in my neighborhood has in many of the content areas. There is world of difference in 30 students versus 40 students in a high school classroom that is not built for that many students. The students are large people who cannot move in such a crowded classroom. They accidentally bump into each other and tempers flare. How many essays can an English teacher grade in a day? How many science labs will a chemistry or physics or biology teacher do when the lab conditions are unsafe due to 40 in a classroom? Do they even have enough Bunsen burners or microscopes for 38 or 40 students? The answer is no labs.
Class sizes this large become nothing more than crowd control.
Class sizes matter the most for low income students – the very group that has the lowest graduation rate and the lowest student achievement.
Welcome to DeKalb County – the highest taxes in the metro area, the lowest teacher pay and the lowest achievement.
Remember to vote for Denise McGill (not Melvin Johnson) and Jim McMahan (not Paul Womack) for school board if you want a change in DeKalb. Election is Next Tuesday, August 21st. Even if you didn’t vote in the Primary, you can vote in the runoff. Email and call your friends and neighbors. This is important for students, parents, taxpayers and property owners.
crankee-yankee
August 16th, 2012
9:31 pm
Once Again
August 15th, 2012
10:24 pm
So the education system that is responsible for turning out the people who were able to run the soviets into the ground by 1990 is really socialistic at its core. Gee, I guess we have nothing to fear then, all those “socialists” in charge of our education system were too stupid to realize they were helping to destroy the USSR. I say we let them keep fomenting their “socialistic” filth, maybe China will be next.
Entitlement Society
August 16th, 2012
8:04 am
“…a system that is set up to fail.”
And who, pray tell, has done the “setting up?”
The legislators with an (R) next to their name maybe? After all, they have been in charge for the past decade.
Entitlement Society
August 17th, 2012
1:39 pm
crankee-yankee
August 16th, 2012
9:31 pm
“And who, pray tell, has done the “setting up?”
The legislators with an (R) next to their name maybe? After all, they have been in charge for the past decade.”
I’m not in to finger pointing and politics. I’m in to finding a quality education for my children immediately (not when school boards, administrators, legislators change). I won’t tolerate one year or even one week of an unsatisfactory school environment for my children. All we’re trying to do is find the best and most reliable education path for our children, which certainly is not Atlanta Public Schools. Bicker all you want to about politics, but I’m focused on providing for my children’s needs TODAY.
TimeOut
August 17th, 2012
1:59 pm
Once Again: Teachers are treated with great respect in some of the most repressive totalitarian states, in some of the most socialist of societies, etc.
Bill
August 17th, 2012
5:15 pm
What a coincidence this topic so hot. I just sent this to my board rep
Scott, my daughters are in Eastside Elementary, and I was just shocked, and a bit more than a little upset to find out my 5th grader is in a class of 32 students. Frankly, I think the county is gaming the system, and simply just going along with state class size mandates. Because it’s easier.
My daughter’s 5th grade class doesn’t even have a teacher’s helper. How can a teacher possibly be effective?
I feel as East Cobb is a popular destination that things are only going to get worse and I see no alternative, unless by chance my children are able to qualify for an AP class, and the smaller sizes that go with it. Otherwise, I’m very discouraged. I feel overcrowded classrooms are the fate that await both my daughters for the rest of their educational lives here in the community. My only option would be to go to a private school.
I feel the poor economy is just an excuse. Each grade in our school needs at least one more teacher. I’m not sure why a school district would cut back on teachers. I really don’t get it. I think the culprit is the fear of taxes. Sooner or later, all funding comes from a tax. I hope people are satisfied with how their “low taxes” are creating oversized classrooms. In a very true way, we get what we deserve.
MelC
August 17th, 2012
5:44 pm
My girlfriend is a 2nd year middle school teacher in science–last year, she had 28 students max in her classes. This year, she has 2 classes with 36 students.
Gwinnett Teacher
August 17th, 2012
9:37 pm
I teach middle school science enrichment in Gwinnett County Schools. My largest class this year was 51, and has now been reduced to a paltry 48. My smallest class is 38, making my total number of kids I serve more than 250. I am teaching in a room with no water, kids packed to the walls, no money (not even for board markers), 1 box of paper (which went missing from my classroom last weekend – and hasn’t been replaced), and a school setting of mass confusion. I don’t call this “world class schools” unless you’re talking about the third world.
Special Education Teacher
August 18th, 2012
7:51 am
@English Teacher…you should be ashamed. Just because a student qualifies for special education services or support does not mean that they can’t participate in an honor’s class. If a student is blind, can they not be taught to read literature and type? Helen Keller was a published author (which is more than you have probably done). If a student is deaf, they need accommodations to level the playing field. They can still be held accountable for the course content. A student with sickle cell anemia may have an IEP for health reasons like absences for hospitalizations. Are you implying they should not take Honor’s? I am sure that your negative feelings are very obvious to your students. I pray that you never have a child that needs accommodations…if all you want is to make it easy for everyone.
Pride and Joy
August 18th, 2012
8:29 am
More money thrown at the problem is NOT the answer.
Integrity and wise use of the money is the solution to the problem that’s why we need more charter schools — so that honest parents can escape the criminals running the public monopoly schools in APS.
Mary Sue
August 18th, 2012
11:35 am
I am a teacher in a Henry County middle school. My classes are all between 33-36 students this year. Last year my largest class had 31 kids in it. Each day more and more kids are registering. Don’t even want to think of how many students I will have by the time we get our usual transfers from up north after Labor Day!
Gwinnettteacher2
August 18th, 2012
2:53 pm
26 in my 1st grade class up from 21 last year. That may not sound like too many to most people but trying to differentiate instruction with that many 5 and 6 year olds is interesting to say the least.
Frustrated Teacher
August 18th, 2012
2:55 pm
As a middle school teacher in Cobb County, my frustration with our School Board, politicians, and decision-makers is at an all-time high. Are my classes larger? YES! Why? My classes have been growing over the past week, to a high of 34, as educators are enduring the fifth straight pay cut in so many years. Yet, as my paycheck gets smaller and my class sizes are increasing, the county is proposing another SPLOST for more construction to our schools. The 2008 SPLOST, still in effect, is estimated to bring in $600 million. How much of that is going to help teachers meet the ever increasing demands in our classroom? NONE! Our school, one of the best in Cobb County, has lost many great teachers in the past few years due to budget cuts by our School Board — the same School Board that has four of seven members with absolute NO experience as a classroom teacher. Why do we have people deciding the fate of our students and teachers who have no clue what we endure day to day? To that, I invite the school board members to get off their high horses and actually visit the schools, talk with teachers, and see for themselves what their decisions have created. I have heard the excuse of a decrease in receipt of property taxes due to the recession, yet every time a teacher’s pay is cut, the ability to pay mortgages, taxes, and other necessities plummets. Therefore, each pay cut CONTRIBUTES to the problem. Why not propose a SPLOST that will supplement the teacher’s pay, allowing us to actual purchase supplies for our classrooms, and decrease class sizes by bringing great teachers back to the field? And finally, is anyone in a decision-making role actually reading these posts????
Lovinggood parent
August 18th, 2012
3:33 pm
My child attended Lovinggood last year and our largest class size was 25. This year my child has multiple classes with over 40 students and so does her best friend. She did have to sit on the floor the first day of school. In a couple of classes – to accommodate the extra students – the kids have to use side desks – not real desks, but tables on the side of the classroom with computer gear in the way so it’s really distracting and hard for the kids to focus. There are typically 5 kids to a desk. I also find it interesting that the teacher’s blog of one teacher who told students to tell their parents to complain if they had an issue with the class size is now blocked and displays the message “Access Denied”.
Yet another issue is overcrowding on the buses. Last year there was no problem- usually 2 kids to seat. This year there are 66 people on the bus with 3 kids to a seat. The bus route is also significantly longer – last year my child would get home at 4:30 but now the bus doesn’t get to our stop until after 5:00. It should be really interesting on Friday when band students have to bring their large instruments on the buses as well.
Teacher Gal
August 18th, 2012
5:03 pm
I’m a teacher in Gwinnett County and our class size went up this year, causing the school I’m at to lose teachers and cram up to 35 students in one class. My classes range from 31 to 33 kids. I manage it okay because I’m a good teacher, but consider this: our computer labs only have up to 30 computers. Gwinnett’s teaching standards mandate that I use technology in my instruction, yet I can’t take any of my classes to a computer lab for said instruction. How am I supposed to do my job?