I just ran across some interesting numbers.

[Exilednight]

Watching MtP today and some of the states surprised me.

170,000 public schools in Amrerica.
3,000,000 teachers teaching in public schools.
approx 50,000,000 students attending public schools in grades 1-12 (2000 census, couldn't find newer numbers)

Averaged out, that equates to just under 300 students per school and 23 students per teacher.

But here's reality, and where the injustice of our system comes in. How many schools actually have an average class size of 23 students per teacher?

I wonder how many students actually sit in a class of 23? I attended an inner-city high school that had just under 4000 students and 112 teachers.

And here's the obvious, if there are schools that are drastically over the average, then there are schools that are drastically under the average.

[Catshrink]

1. It isn't just the number of students.

There's a world of difference between teaching an AP class with 30 kids vs. a class of 30 kids who don't have the course prerequisites. Add several special needs students and the dynamic changes completely. One teacher in our school has a class of 40 kids, 20 of them have IEPs and read at a 5th-6th grade level - this is high school. What is going to happen to her if her kids do poorly on their holy tests?

Our class numbers have shot up across the board this year because of rifs last year. The teacher above has the most difficult class load but many other teachers have nearly the same proportions but in smaller numbers. Parents are starting to notice and asking how long this will go on. A couple of us have replied that it will continue until the Legislature begins supporting public education. Yeah, the public is becoming aware but most of our Legislature ran unopposed in their primaries and since this state bleeds red, the R's have it locked up. Until the people vote out the ideologues this will continue.

[dkf]

2. How many of those teachers don't have students?

Aka resource teachers.

My sister tells me the way they get rid of bad teachers is to give them a raise, call them a resource teacher and send them to the district office.

[Recursion]

3. Resource teachers, master teachers, special education teachers

They often teach no or much fewer students than "line" teachers, which probably screws up the numbers.

[Hannah Bell]

4. sidwell friends caps at 12.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. IEP coordinator, transition coordinator, literacy coach,

technology coordinator, crisis-intervention teacher, dean.... it goes on and on.

The typical public school is a swamp of bureaucracy.

Want to lower class sizes? Let's start here.

[LWolf]

6. Those numbers count every certified teacher,

including those who don't have their own assigned class, but serve in other roles. Special ed teachers, for example, who have large rosters of students to serve, but who pull them out, or "push in" to, their regular classes.

In my K-8 school, the PE teacher serves all students, but doesn't have a "class" assigned to her. Our school counselor is also counted as a teacher, plus our two special ed teachers. That makes 4 extra teachers in a small school, making our "per class average" look quite a bit smaller than reality. We have 15 classes of students; our overall population is divided by 19 to get that "average."

The average number of students in each class is 27, which is not nearly as high as it has been in the past due to declining enrollment. We have a lot of families moving away, trying to find work.

Using all of our certified staff to determine that average, it would be 21 students per class, which is obviously not accurate.