Adults may be focused on jobs, light rail and taxes in the upcoming elections. But young people are teed off about overcrowded classes. That topped the list for many of the 35 students who responded to this week's Young Voices question: "What are the urgent needs that you think the candidates for school board, city council and mayor on the November 8 ballot should be focusing on.
They also put school discipline, paying teachers better, jobs for youths more supplies on their list. Read more of their comments online on the Observer's Opinion page.
There's a paradox here.
ReplyDeleteWe keep hearing how crowded classrooms are but the overall student/teacher ratio is around 16 to 1.
Granted, I know in a number of cases there are exceptions to the rule as pointed out by Larry Bumgarner on occasion, but does class size in high school REALLY matter?
Elementary schools, I can see the validity (and due to Title 1 classrooms are smaller), but when students leave the 12th grade for college, they won't have someone coddling them in smaller class sizes. They'll be a little fish in a big sea and the college won't give a danm about how many students are in a particular class. We need to prepare high school studenst FOR large class sizes.
I get the point that in some schools it's the lack of places to put large classes, but large class sizes in themselves shouldn't be an issue.
There were 30-35 students in EVERY class I took from 1st grade through 12th and I scored 1360 on my SAT.
ReplyDeleteClass size is politikspeak for "bigger teachers union".
That proves my point, as my son never had those large classes during 13 years in CMS....
ReplyDeleteAdult and light rail used in the same sentence? Only in the Observer.
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ReplyDeleteLarge classes DO matter! I taught science for 14 years, and believe me when I tell you that the labs you can do with a small class are far better than the labs you can do with a large class. First, there is the expense. The schools are not giving teachers more money to spend in the class as class size increases, and expendable lab materials are expensive. Second, there is the matter of safety. It is far easier to keep an eye on each student in a smaller class, and therefore far safer during chemistry labs - even in high school. Third, there is the matter of feedback for students. I received no additional planning/grading time for larger classes and so the amount of time I could spend assessing and providing meaningful feedback per student assignment was reduced as class sizes increased. I could go on; there are many reasons large classes are more difficult - especially in terms of providing the best possible educational opportunities for the "average" student.
ReplyDeleteJenni....
ReplyDeleteThen how did we ever function in college?