Class Size Matters
Size. Big or small. Wide or thin. People never think of size as anything more then maybe the size of their Starbuck’s drink they order. Now, size is more than just the Starbuck’s drink you order. Size has affected your child as a student and their performance in school. In a 2008 survey, 76% of teachers said that reducing class size would be "a very effective" way of improving teacher quality, and 21% responding that it would be an “effective” method, far outstripping every other reform cited. (“Fact Sheets On Class Size”) 76%. That is over ¾ of teachers, that think reducing class sizes is effective in a positive way. While some people argue that larger class sizes can save school money, larger classes are actually
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“Class size reduction is likely to have large public health benefits...with nearly two more years of life projected for students who are in smaller classes in the early grades”(“Facts Sheets On Class Size”). In other words, smaller class sizes gives students two additional years of their life and having better health throughout their life. Two years. Think about the first two years of your child’s life, would you be willing to take them away? Most parents would say no, but then why don’t they realize that larger class sizes are basically taking two years of their children’s lives away. “These students also had significantly lower dropout rates...” (“Facts Sheets On Class Size”). In other words, students that are immersed in a smaller class will be more likely to stay in school and not drop out. While students in larger classes will be more likely to dropout. Smaller class sizes have benefits that relate to school and some that don’t. Health is just one of the many non-school related benefits that effective students who are in smaller class sizes. Drop-out rates is one of the numerous school related benefits. Both of these benefits make smaller class sizes …show more content…
Dick Gerhardt, a United States Representative from Missouri, said “We’re talking about education, we’re talking about school construction...You can’t get smaller class size with just teachers, you need the buildings,.” Dick Gerhardt is trying to say that schools may have the teachers, but when you make classes smaller, there is more classes. With additional classes, you need more space. Schools would need to spend “extra” money on more space if they don’t have enough, for more classes. Therefore, people think that smaller class sizes waste money. While really schools are spending their money wisely because all in all, the students education should be the most important thing in the school, because after all that is what students are at school
A Class Divided The film A Class Divided was designed to show students why it is important not to judge people by how they look, but rather who they are inside. This is a very important lesson to learn: people spend too much time looking at people not for who they are but for what ETHNITICY they are. One variable that I liked about the film is that it showed the children how it felt to be on both sides of the spectrum. The HYPOTHESIS of the workshop was that if you out a child and let them experience what it is like to be in the group that is not wanted because of how they look and then make the other group the better people group that the child will have a better understanding of not to judge a person because of how they look but instead who they are as people. I liked the workshop because it made everyone that participated in it, even the adults that took it later on, realize that you can REHABILITAE ones way of thinking.
College readiness is the main focus point for high school students. Becoming that person that is able to achieve the highest potential in a certain area and obtain a degree is what each student aims for. However, for all that to occur one should be able to have the opportunities to help him or her reach the goals that have been set. The lack of AP classes that our school does not offer interferes with that. Our school offers eleven out of the forty AP classes that are available. In addition, some of the AP classes do not end up running because of the school policy of having a certain amount of students placed in it. The importance of AP classes is increasing when one fills out an application for his or her desired university. Having AP classes listed down on an application for a university enhances a student 's application. Colleges want to see that you have challenged yourself to the best of your ability, and that you were able to handle the college level coursework (hubpages).
AAA, for example, is a small school (“About the Academy”). The currently enrolled student body is made up of about 400 students, making the student to teacher ratio 15:1 (Best College Comparison). Another example is SAIC which is a medium sized school (“Compare Colleges”). SAIC has an average of 3,000-4,000 students enrolled a year. According to “SAIC”, about 83% of the classes at the school are small with less than 20 students. About 15% of the classes are medium with 20-49 students, and the final 1% of the classes have 50 or more. With classes this size, SAIC has an average student to teacher ratio of 9:1 (Best College Comparison). The final example is Columbia which happens to be a medium sized school. Columbia has an average of 9,000 students enrolled a year. According to “Columbia College Chicago”, the average class size at columbia is fewer than 20 students, making the student to teacher ratio 13:1. The school and classes are big enough to be able to work and learn from other students, but still be able to get one-on-one time with instructors. While class size is an important aspect of the decision making process, the cost of college is likely one of the biggest deciding
The number one role our schools should play in a student’s life is to make them improve themselves. Academically, socially, mentally, physically, all of these are important in making our students better people. Who knows that poor black kid that doesn’t want to try in your class could invent the next life-changing invention? Or, maybe the same kid could go on to be a great athlete, president, CEO, or maybe even you will have such an affect on your life he will want to grow up and be a teacher. So that he can do the same to some other student of his. Isn’t that the best way to improve our school districts for the better? Instill the hunger to learn in our students that will never be sated?
...ce they begin to see those small changed and realize that they can indeed have a positive effect on how the students view school it will motivate everyone, both the students and the faculty, to keep trying to narrow that gap that exists with the graduation rates.
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
.... Having such high numbers of students in my classes did have negative effects on my learning. Without having teachers who knew me as an individual, I was left with a very impersonal learning environment. With having so many students in each of my classes, I had a very hard time having all of my questions answered by my teachers. The hardest part of having so many students in my classes was that I was often not the smartest one in there, and when I gave a wrong answer I was laughed at. It is not fair to feel intimidated by the amount of students in your classroom. No one should be afraid to learn for the fear of embarrassment. Students should not have the opportunity not to learn because the teacher can not relate to them, or because the teacher does not have the time to answer all their questions, or because their teacher only gives attention to the smarter students.
Districts have to think about if it is worth the money to reduce class sizes, and if there is enough proof that students are academically better off in smaller class size rather than larger classes. According to Matthew Chingos and Grover Whitehurt authors of Class Size: What Research Says and What It Means for State Policy, “Increasing the pupil/teacher ratio in the U.S. by one student would save at least $12 billion per year in teacher salary cost alone” (Chingos, Whitehurt). Why would districts want to pay for the creation of smaller classes when they could save more by just adding more students to a class? This goes to show that there should not be a price tag on someone’s education. Why put more on a teacher’s plate just to save money? With the result from the Student Teacher Ratio, it is hard for districts to say that having smaller class sizes is not the way to spend money. If the districts spent the money on the class size reduction, they would not have to worry about an annual cost, because once small classes are set in place, the districts do not have to continue to pay. According to the National Education Association (NEA), having class size reductions do not only involve money but also create “improved health, less Medicaid coverage, lower crime rates, and fewer welfare recipients” (Class Size Reduction: A Proven Strategy). So, the districts should also look at this before being concerned to where their money goes. The district’s money, according to the NEA, is going into these students who will live a better life later on when they are out of school and into the real
... Class size reduction is another area that would enable our school system to move forward. In a smaller size classroom, educational quality will be improved. Teachers have greater amount of time to build a solid ground for the students to flourish. Though changes need to take place in our current school system, I am thankful to be in a country where my children have the right to be educated.
If class sizes where smaller, teachers would be able to do more hands on activities and there would be less chance for distractions. Even through, teachers would be able to do more hands on activities and there would be less chance for distraction. Teachers could do more hands-on activities in a science class likesuch as experiments in class instead of homework outside of class. In smaller class sizes there would be less chance for distractions, more time to review for a big test, there would be more interaction with the teacher.. “In elementary schools, class sizes generally hovered around 20 in 2008, rising to 25 to 30 in many cases this year.” (Giuliani, 1)There would be more time to review for a big test in a smaller class. There would be more interaction with the teacher in a smaller class size. According to Scott Thill “The proposal by billionaire Bill Gates to increase cl...
Are large lecture hall numbers in colleges pushing incoming freshman away? It does for me and many other people I talk to about college. In colleges adds, they mainly advertise if they have small class numbers. They tell us that we will be on a first name basis with out professors if we attend that college. Never have I seen the University of Iowa brag about their 300 people lecture halls. There is a reason to that, and it is quite simple. Students do not learn as well in large class sizes. According to the article “Does Class Size Matter” in the New York Times, students were asked to comment their thoughts on the question. Out of the 220 comments left by students all around the world, 99 percent of the comments that I read said that they liked being in smaller classes for a few simple reasons. One, they can pay attention to what the teacher is teaching better. Two, there are less distractions; this is beneficial to both the teacher and students. And three, the communication with the teacher is much better in a classroom with fewer students. There is more to just the students learning that gets affected by class sizes. We must step back and look at the rock of the classroom, the teacher. It does affect how students learn if the teacher is using certain methods. There are a multitude of ways to teach and sometimes it just doesn’t click with a student the way the teacher is teaching. If we had smaller classes, educators would be able to identify the students who are struggling and figure out a way to help them
Each student needs the teacher to give them more than five minutes of attention to them when they are in class. In the article "How important is class size?"by GreatSchools Staff “Academic gains are not the only benefit of lowering class size. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health revealed that reducing class sizes in elementary schools may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical interventions. This is because students in smaller classes are more likely to graduate from high school, and high school graduates earn more and also enjoy significantly better health than high school dropouts.” The article is stating that children with a group of 20 students in class a sufficient for the students. Student can ask assistants form teacher without having to wait too long than in a lager class it becomes chaotic with too many students. In a smaller classroom student comprehend much more of the lesson and this will help student in the future from dropping out for school. This will improve with funding school hiring more teachers to have a functional
Teacher quality is the most important issue when dealing with how effective a classroom will ...
...mpared to privately funded school sizes. According to (NCES) the average school size for a central city, state-funded school is 1,083 compared to 398 in privately funded school. That means teachers will have an even harder time giving a state-funded the same one on one time when compared to the privately funded school. Since the education is not equal to private schools should be abolished.
Second, end overcrowded classes, as population grows the demand of building more schools grow with it. In average, we should have six-hundred to eight-hundred students in each school. Nevertheless, some schools now have over one-thousand students, which make it very difficult inside the class room. In a big city like Raleigh the number of students is very large, and that leads to so many problems like making around year school, which have a negative impact on the students. Students will be able to understand more when there are fewer numbers inside the class room.