POLL: Do Class Sizes Seem Bigger?

Charles September 6, 2012 at 12:24 pm

Maybe ten or 15 years ago, class sizes were in the low 20s. Now, they are in the low 30s. However, look at class photos from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and you often see class sizes in the low 30s also. Class sizes of the 20s seem to have been the exception. Class sizes in the low 30s seem to be historically more common.

Alberto Barrera September 6, 2012 at 06:16 pm

My AP Gov/Econ class has forty-seven students, those who couldn't find seats had to sit on stools and extra chairs.

Charles September 6, 2012 at 06:44 pm

The positive side of this post is those kids sitting on the floor will be well prepared for college. Some of my freshmen engineering courses had something like (just guessing) 300 students in them. [I still remember the first day of a freshman EE class; the professor pointed to us in the room and told us to look around and that only 1 out of 11 of us would end up graduating EE].
I suppose another positive side to larger classes (besides saving the district money) is it sort of forces students to do their own digging and learning. Lou Holtz, a successful Notre Dame football coach in the 1980s once replied to the compliment "You're a great motivator, Lou." with "I'm not a great motivator; I'm just really good at weeding out those who can't motivate themselves."

Capo Parent September 6, 2012 at 07:39 pm

The students in CUSD sure could use the $20 million CUSD gave back to the teachers union and other employee groups last year while facing a multimillion dollar deficit. I guess there is a silver lining, with all the students sitting on the classroom floors, there will less of a need to clean the floors. Woo Hoo!

Kat September 9, 2012 at 12:22 am

The larger class sizes are horrible conditions for any student to learn in or teacher to instruct. My fifth grader has 40 students in her class and my 3rd grader is in a 2/3 combo class with 38! These r not college students...these are young children learning to focus and gain good study skills & habits to be life long learners! How will they ever get the instruction they deserve? There will be too many distractions! These are deplorable learning & teaching environments!

Capo mom September 10, 2012 at 12:07 am

Take heart, Kat. The good news is CUEA maintained their salary and benefits structure and our kids have 3 weeks less exposure to these horrible conditions.
As for getting the instruction they deserve ... oh, well.