Class sizes rising

[Hannah Bell]

Millions of public school students across the nation are seeing their class sizes swell because of budget cuts and teacher layoffs, undermining a decades-long push by parents, administrators and policy makers to shrink class sizes. Over the past two years, California, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin have loosened legal restrictions on class size. And Idaho and Texas are debating whether to fit more students in classrooms.

Los Angeles has increased the average size of its ninth-grade English and math classes to 34 from 20. Eleventh- and 12th-grade classes in those two subjects have risen, on average, to 43 students.

In Detroit, the authorities are so overwhelmed by financial troubles that they are debating a deficit-reduction proposal that would increase high school class sizes to 60 students...In New York City, average elementary class sizes have grown to 23.7 students from 21.8 since 2008, according to official data. In Utah, one of the few states that collect class size data each year, median class size has increased by several students in many grade levels since 2008. It now ranges from 22 students in kindergarten to 31 students in high school chemistry classes.

“All the budget cuts have started our class sizes on that climb upward,” said Judy W. Park, associate superintendent of the State Office of Education in Utah. “During the last two years, our schools have really seen it.”

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2011/03/class-size-rising.html

[DrDan]

1. my wife will be thrilled - she sees 195/day today

[no_hypocrisy]

2. And teachers will continue to be blamed when the kids can't produce the

test scores for NCLB when "teaching" 40 kids in a class can't effectively be done.

[provis99]

3. If they can teach in 1500 person auditoriums in college,

I don't see why a 60 person high school class should be so hard. This class size thing is a red herring. The real problem with the education system today is that poor people can't devote the time to help their kids out in school, because corporations won't pay them enough in real wages.

[Horse with no Name]

4. Well you would expect that by the time someone reaches the university level

that they wouldn't have to be one-on-one tutored in basic math, english, and reading.

But I might be wrong.

[walldude]

6. First of all the average college class size is more like 2-300

not 1500.

Second of all there is a huge difference between high school and advanced education.

A 60 person high school class just means that many more kids fall through the cracks.

[Fire1]

5. There is no way in hell I would return to the classroom. n/t