First Issue: Too Many Students Per Classroom

Let me now begin with the first problem that I would like to discuss. There are simply too many students per classroom. The community college I teach at caps enrollment at 20 students per class. This is a fair number and should be applied to middle and high schools.

Before teaching remedial college reading and writing courses, I taught 11th grade English at Woodlawn High. This is an under-acheiving school with a population of 90% African American students. The student population totals at 1,877. I taught an honor's English class first period that had 31 students on the roster. Sometimes we had to ask to borrow a desk or chair from a neighboring classroom. It didn't help that this wing of the building didn't come equipped with an air conditioning system.

When I first started, an administrator went from classroom to classroom, going over the student handbook. She told the students that they weren’t stupid, they just acted stupid. She told them that when other schools looked at their A’s, they saw them as C’s. She also emphasized that the students should not get into fights, and if they do, they definitely should not hit the teachers. Don’t hit the teachers. That point was stressed more than once.

Looking at the quality of my honor students’ work, I can see why the administrator told them their A’s appeared to be C’s to more prestigious schools. Their honors class is the equivalent of an average high school’s, well, average class. What I’m getting at is that the honor students in this particular class really are not that particularly brainy. They may have a stronger desire to do things like go to college or impress their parents than their peers in non-honors classes. This should give the teacher an upper hand. There is one excellent way to ruin the success of this honors class. Pack 31 of these students together in the same room. Yup, that’ll do it.

The solution here is quite simple (I know it is not as simple to implement as it is to figure out). Schools that fail to meet academic standards, such as Woodlawn, should not allow more than 20 students per classroom. While Woodlawn did manage to meet AYP goals for 2008 according to the 2008 Maryland Report Card, they are still only showing 59.6% of students are proficient in reading and 54.8% are proficient in mathematics. I find these percentages to be unacceptable and know schools can do much better.

Students cannot concentrate in a packed classroom. The more students per classroom, the more opportunities the students have to misbehave. Teachers cannot efficiently utilize their time if they are constantly disciplining a large group of students. Placing more than one teacher per classroom is not the answer. When I taught at Woodlawn High, I had an English class that had about 8 IEP (special needs) students. Because these students were integrated into a class with non-IEP students, I had an assistant teacher always in the room with me. We faced a lot of disciplinary issues in the class and ended up dividing the class in half. I took half of the students to another classroom, and had much better results with behavior management.

A chaotic classroom presents unneeded disturbances for teachers and students. It sounds ideal to cap each classroom roster at 20 students. I understand that questions arise. Where will we find the room to accommodate all of the students, now that we will have less kids per classroom? Once we disperse the students, where will we find the money to hire additional teachers to cover new classes that will be created? We cannot stop at these questions and use them as excuses for not changing things. If we do not change things, our schools will not improve.

We must make efficient use of the school building. Classrooms should never be empty unless the school is able to accommodate 20 students per room and still have empty classrooms. If there are not enough rooms to accommodate the kids, then the building must either be expanded or the classrooms redesigned and sectioned off into separate, smaller rooms. If money is distributed wisely amongst the school districts, capping rooms at 20 students should be possible.

How do we find enough teachers without going over the allotted budget? First, as I previously said, we split the teachers up into separate rooms instead of having two teachers in the same room with more than 20 students. Another viable option is to implement a volunteer program. Many classrooms with 20 students will still need additional staff. School districts should partner with local community colleges and four-year colleges to create a volunteer program. School districts should educate the general population on the crisis that urban schools are facing. Students are graduating high school without the ability to read and write, and they need help!

If we push volunteering, I know that many people will step up to help out. College students as well as citizens of the community who are passionate about improving local schools will be happy to help if they are aware of the problems. I will end on this note. I look forward to receiving feedback on these ideas. Any criticisms or suggestions are highly appreciated.