Increasing Class Sizes: What People Outside the Classroom Don't See

This week Baltimore County Executive Keven Kamentz suggested shifting fourth- and fifth-graders to middle schools in order to solve the problem of overcrowded elementary schools. Across the country schools are suffering from increased class sizes due to budget problems despite the research that shows smaller class sizes promote higher achievement. However, across the country districts have been appealing penalties placed on schools for exceeding class sizes that have resulted in violations of the law.

Those who aren’t in the classroom don’t realize the added responsibilities of teaching more students aside from the issue of classroom management. As a teacher with rosters that reach almost sixty students per class, I understand those frustrations. No matter how many students sit in front a teacher every day, the teacher must deal with extra pressures. These include grading extra papers, providing more makeup work for the higher amount of absent students, contacting more parents, documenting more behaviors and academic data (especially if there is a higher population of special education students in the classroom), among other responsibilities. For teachers with “copy limits” or small classrooms, the increased sizes can add extra stress that is completely unnecessary and ultimately distracting from the teacher’s critical role: teaching.

In addition to a public misconception about the duties of a teacher when class sizes increase, it seems that our leaders are not in touch with the real numbers. Last Sunday Arne Duncan spoke with governors in Washington and asked them to consider paying bonuses to the schools’ best teachers for taking on extra students. Mr. Duncan stated that he would prefer to put his own children in a classroom with 28 students led by a “fantastic” teacher than in one with 23 and a “mediocre” teacher. Mr. Duncan, 28 students has become more of a norm for teachers in low-performing schools. When you look at the average class sizes of students in a city, you are including all schools, not just those schools serving low-achieving students, which are the schools that would benefit most from small sizes.

Sources: http://www.wbaltv.com/education/27141722/detail.html;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/education/07classrooms.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education