Comments on: Did you know the average class size in American schools is 8 pupils per teacher? Yeah, me neither…

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:27:28 +0000

Hi! I know by internet standards that this is an old post, but checkout the latest NewsWeek to see some other journalist towing the same line that Peterson did.

By: Christy

Christy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:09:47 +0000

As a career-changing, first year teacher who spent two years working in an AIP (Assisted Instruction Program) as an instructional aide, I’d like Mr. Peterson to spend a day working with 6 MR, severely autistic, and/or other low processing students of various ages that reside in our schools on a daily basis. A crew of 1 teacher and 3 aides was barely enough to work with students who were applauded for tapping schedule books, completing routine tasks such as moving chairs, coming to snack, indicating that they had to use the bathroom, etc. Try changing diapers, cleaning crap off your shoe, and wiping the bottom of a ten year old boy as tall as yourself. Try pulling the teeth of a child that can’t communicate out of your arm, scalp, chest, or any region of the body that child chooses. Try taking care of all six kids when the fastest one breaks loose from the classroom and manages to get outside the school.
I have never seen a gen ed classroom with less than 13 kids, and that is rare. Mr. Peterson, like many who talk about education in such a general way, obviously doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:25:24 +0000

When I began the special ed assessment process for my son (who has delayed speech) I looked at the directory of our neighborhood elementary school to figure out to whom I should send the request. I could not believe how many staff members they had listed in the special ed department. It’s a school of around 600 or so kids but it had probably 15 names listed. So I could totally believe there being an 8:1 ratio of pupils to instructional staff even though the classrooms have 22 students in the primary grades and 30 in the upper grades.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:22:38 +0000

As someone who spent a decade standing in front of 32 students per class, all day every day plus duty, etc, etc… I think that no matter HOW you teach and no matter what some f’n PBS study says, 32 is a LOT.

By: Mitch Gam

Mitch Gam — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:03:56 +0000

I think there was a study done (on PBS a few years back) where they disproved the idea about the correlation between smaller class size and learning. Not that smaller class size isn’t nice but it doesn’t necessarily improve learning. It’s all about the way the teacher teaches, not class size.

By: Mohammed Rhalmi

Mohammed Rhalmi — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:36:21 +0000

In Morocco teachers may have more have more than 50 students! You can imagine how much stress teachers face everyday

By: teacherrevised

teacherrevised — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:54:06 +0000

Mr. Peterson is only factoring instructional employees into his class size ratios. My beef is with the fact that he classifies administrators and guidance counselors as instructional employees in order to make the claim that the average class size is 8 students per pupil and therefore class size reduction is not the answer to America’s education crisis.
The issue of of non-instructional staff is another issue completely which I don’t address in this post and that Mr. Peterson only briefly touches upon.
Thank-you for the dissent though! This blog needs more.

Alistair

By: Mitch Gam

Mitch Gam — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:02:31 +0000

I think your missing the point with your critique. The districts have hired a larger and larger amount of NON instructional staff in the last 10 or 20 years that they did not have in earlier times. It is that staff that needs to be trimmed down. I think maybe that rather then kneejerking anyone who opposes your view point, you should look at what they were trying to say.

By: gehry

gehry — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:40:36 +0000

The fact that Mr. Peterson is writing for the Hoover Institute is another symbol of his true intentions. It is no surprise that the same right wing think tank that churns out Neo-conservatives promotes this idea.

Mr. Peterson is more interested in protecting the ideas of free-market capitalism in the classroom than providing excellent public school education for our future. Not sure if he has ever set foot in a classroom-but I know that our kids are better off without him there as well!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:01:50 +0000

That makes me really curious about Mr. Peterson’s background. I work in an international private school with mostly uber-rich kids and our class size is still pushing twenty (of course correctly calculated as student/teacher ratio), and all the teachers know that that is way fewer teachers than they would be teaching back home.

They also know that the smaller class size means they can better focus on individual student needs.

I think people who don’t really know much about how people learn, i.e. people who think that learning is taking notes and memorizing facts, think that class size doesn’t matter. After all a teacher can lecture at the chalk board regardless of how many warm bodies are in the seats.