Chicago teachers and their union, CTU, have been in a stalemate with the city for the past week. While students missed class, their teachers took to the streets, unified by their red and purple shirts in a desperate call for change. A major hope of theirs is to end issues such as overcrowded classrooms and to stop funding cuts that jeopardize supports for bi-lingual learners. The push for smaller class sizes, in particular, has been a contentious point for policy makers and on-the-ground practitioners for years. The praxis of theory and the reality of navigating what’s best for our students (and especially our students who are historically at the most risk) has been a back-and-forth battle rooted in funding measures and top-down policy implementations across the nation.
And perhaps inevitably, the conversation of class size is linked to staff shortages. I find that both are a result of a no-excuse culture that seeks to get the most "bang for your buck" in education. In reality, this pervasive mentality effects the futures of students and the longterm sustainability of a school district like Chicago, that's fully responsible for educating ~300,000 students and developing ~21,000 education professionals. And so, despite class size caps and designated district staff to monitor the over-crowning of schools in Chicago, some teachers still find themselves with classes of over 40 students. This especially seems odd given the city’s reported ratio of “one teacher for every 14 students”. My interest, and the interest of all educators, should be in supporting a just rhetoric of policy and research that works in the best interest of our students across the country. Let’s continue to create conversations around the reality of school districts and the ratio of in-classroom teachers to students. Depriving students of their right to equitable opportunity of education is detrimental, and the CTU knows this. So, backed by current research specific to “urban” schools, let’s continue to hold cities and stakeholders responsible for providing our students with what they need- contextually reasonable class sizes, assistant teachers, universal Pre-K, and the long list of measures still on deck. It’s up to us to know, decide, act, and advocate.
And perhaps inevitably, the conversation of class size is linked to staff shortages. I find that both are a result of a no-excuse culture that seeks to get the most "bang for your buck" in education. In reality, this pervasive mentality effects the futures of students and the longterm sustainability of a school district like Chicago, that's fully responsible for educating ~300,000 students and developing ~21,000 education professionals. And so, despite class size caps and designated district staff to monitor the over-crowning of schools in Chicago, some teachers still find themselves with classes of over 40 students. This especially seems odd given the city’s reported ratio of “one teacher for every 14 students”. My interest, and the interest of all educators, should be in supporting a just rhetoric of policy and research that works in the best interest of our students across the country. Let’s continue to create conversations around the reality of school districts and the ratio of in-classroom teachers to students. Depriving students of their right to equitable opportunity of education is detrimental, and the CTU knows this. So, backed by current research specific to “urban” schools, let’s continue to hold cities and stakeholders responsible for providing our students with what they need- contextually reasonable class sizes, assistant teachers, universal Pre-K, and the long list of measures still on deck. It’s up to us to know, decide, act, and advocate.
