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Last week, Truman’s new elementary school posted the names of the teachers and the students assigned to each of their classes. Our entire family rushed to the school at precisely 3 p.m. for the hallowed occasion. I recognized some of the Kindergarten teachers’ names from poolside chats with neighbors. But otherwise I was going into this whole Kndergarten thing blind, though with tangible excitement. When we spotted our son’s name on the list, my enthusiasm dampened.
There are five Kindergarten classes. Each has 15-16 students, except the class Truman is assigned to. It has 23. It also has a full-time teacher’s aide, which I suppose makes the ratio better than in the other classes … but still. I turned to MuniNetGuide for some guidance on what class sizes may mean. Student-teacher ratio is “generally used as a measure of school quality and state effort, on one hand, and inefficiency, on the other, by politicians, policy makers, the press, local educators, and education researchers,” says John Sietsema, data consultant with the National Center for Education Statistics.
According to the Center for Public Education, “some researchers have not found a connection between smaller classes and higher student achievement, but most of the research shows that when class size reduction programs are well-designed and implemented in the primary grades (K-3), student achievement rises as class size drops.”
The premise is that in large classes there will be a wide variance in students’ learning abilities. The teacher will have to spend more time working with the less academic students, which would, in turn, hold back the students who progress faster. Though research may vary, it’s hard to push aside the benefits of a lower ratio. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit concerned.
Will a full-time teacher’s assistant, which would lower the teacher-student ratio to about 1:12 in his class, solve the issue? I suppose only time will tell. The important thing is that we believe in the school our son attends, the teacher who will be leading the class, and this city where we pay higher taxes to help fund the public schools (and get less “bang for our buck” in housing). And ultimately, we are looking forward to a positive Kindergarten experience for us all.
Photo, Flickr, woodleywonderworks
How many students are teachers aides allowed to have in a room by themselves?
If you’re interested in the whole study at the Center for Public Education, you can find it here:
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lvIXIiN0JwE&b=5374215&content_id={AF400C02-C1FA-4F26-A329-F67F5E362C82}¬oc=1
or just go to http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org and search on “class size”.
Glad the study has been helpful!
I think it partly depends on the quality of the teacher’s aide. I also wonder if it is a larger classroom than the others.
If it’s like Capra’s kindergarten, they spend a lot of time broken out into small groups for individualized “centers.” The teacher may be working with one group on their reading, while other groups do math games, work on putting together their own books, individualized reading, etc. A teacher’s aide could certainly move between these groups and help the students while the teacher concentrated on the direct “teaching” duties.
By the way, when I was in elementary school, we had about 30 kids per class. I think kindergarten was a little less, 20 maybe. The whole style of teaching has changed. Back then, starting in first grade (which really is where we learned what Capra learned in kindergarten), we sat in rows and had instruction all as one large group. The very style of teaching today allows for more opportunities for one-on-one interaction with the teacher, regardless of class size.
I’m no expert here but I have two children that have been in school for a bit and I think the lower amount of children in a class is best. Course this also depends on your child. I love that mine can interact with the teacher more and they seem to learn a lot more.