Spend money to keep class sizes small. Stop spending money on specialized programs that benefit only a few students: elementary languages, etc. Focus on fundamentals that will benefit all students: writing, reading, math, science. Smaller classes allow for differentiated teaching and learning.
M
Mindy Bowman
12 years ago
Vienna Elementary School. During my daughter's elementary school years she has experienced both large and small classes and it makes such a difference! Please don't burden our kids and our teachers with oversized classes.
C
Christine Faiman
12 years ago
The focus of the future of our children - we pay alot of taxes in Fairfax County thus our government should take care of the schools and its teachers (and thereby our children).
C
Cary Hunter
12 years ago
Class sizes are too important - keep our student teacher ratio in check please. Everyone suffers when the class size goes past 25 students.
G
Gayathri Krishnan
12 years ago
Please keep the class size small.This way the kids get better attention and this in turn will result in a better performance in school and the community.
C
Christina Filemyr
12 years ago
Fairfax County schools are known to be one of the best if not THE best in the country. Let's help maintain that level of standard by keeping the class size cap low. Don't we want to adhere to the principle of "no child left behind"? Having a large class size will only hurt the students. In the end...we are hurting ourselves in the effort to maintain a strong America.
R
Ristott
12 years ago
Classroom teachers are already asked to do too much: teach ( which is what they want to do!) answer every email, deal with a variety of students needs in a way that is under more pressure than ever, be innovative, etc! Lessen the load by having smaller classes.
All will win: teachers, students, school community and the larger community
B
Beatriz Meza
12 years ago
It is critical that student teacher ratios be smaller for Elementary schools, where kids are not yet independent and require more attention from teachers to achieve goals. A cap on a class size and additional assistant teacher is needed in elementary school classes.
K
Kenneth Mayer
12 years ago
Parent: Churchill Road E.S.
D
Dr. Burlie Brunson
12 years ago
Like many of you I have long believed that smaller is better when it comes to class size. However, In a recent book entitled "David and Goliath," author Malcolm Gladwell has cited evidence from many studies of student performance vs. class size from eighteen countries that in only two countries were there "nontrivial beneficial effects of reduced class sizes." Tens of billions of dollars have been poured into our schools to reduce class sizes by hiring more teachers. The outcome indicated by the performance of American students against those from other nations do not indicate that the money was well spent. We have actually fallen further behind, particularly in science and math. So rather than jumping to the generally accepted conclusion that just by pouring more money into hiring more teachers to meet an arbitrary class size limit we can improve the performance of our children, why not also try improving the effectiveness and quality of the teachers we have and hold them accountable for student performance?
M
Meredith Blankenstein
12 years ago
My child went from a student teacher ratio of 8:1 in kindergarten outside FCPS to a ratio of 29:1 in first grade at Churchill Road ES. This is a shameful way to support teachers and students alike. The teachers have every reason to LEAVE to private schools or other school systems with better ratios. Even if the pay might not be the same, the teachers' quality of life is worth is the change. The children they teach are our future and yours- shall we give them as little attention as possible to make the budget work? Shall we leave the strugglers behind? Shall we bore the gifted students so they will never reach their potential? Wouldn't that be a stupid idea? Let's make our school system one that generates bored, stupid children taught by burnt out teachers. Great idea. I continue to vote for school bonds, but that's going to change if you continue to waste our money
My friends in grade 5 at Wolftrap are in large class sizes and they are frustrated.
Classes are already too big.
Please do not increase class sizesinFairfax County Schools. Thanks
Cap class size now!
Haycock Elementary School
Please help our children at Wolftrap. They already suffer from very large classes. Enough really should be enough.
Cunningham park
Louise Archer Elementary School
Class size matters! Don't increase, I won't be able to learn!
Spend money to keep class sizes small. Stop spending money on specialized programs that benefit only a few students: elementary languages, etc. Focus on fundamentals that will benefit all students: writing, reading, math, science. Smaller classes allow for differentiated teaching and learning.
Vienna Elementary School. During my daughter's elementary school years she has experienced both large and small classes and it makes such a difference! Please don't burden our kids and our teachers with oversized classes.
The focus of the future of our children - we pay alot of taxes in Fairfax County thus our government should take care of the schools and its teachers (and thereby our children).
Class sizes are too important - keep our student teacher ratio in check please. Everyone suffers when the class size goes past 25 students.
Please keep the class size small.This way the kids get better attention and this in turn will result in a better performance in school and the community.
Fairfax County schools are known to be one of the best if not THE best in the country. Let's help maintain that level of standard by keeping the class size cap low. Don't we want to adhere to the principle of "no child left behind"? Having a large class size will only hurt the students. In the end...we are hurting ourselves in the effort to maintain a strong America.
Classroom teachers are already asked to do too much: teach ( which is what they want to do!) answer every email, deal with a variety of students needs in a way that is under more pressure than ever, be innovative, etc! Lessen the load by having smaller classes. All will win: teachers, students, school community and the larger community
It is critical that student teacher ratios be smaller for Elementary schools, where kids are not yet independent and require more attention from teachers to achieve goals. A cap on a class size and additional assistant teacher is needed in elementary school classes.
Parent: Churchill Road E.S.
Like many of you I have long believed that smaller is better when it comes to class size. However, In a recent book entitled "David and Goliath," author Malcolm Gladwell has cited evidence from many studies of student performance vs. class size from eighteen countries that in only two countries were there "nontrivial beneficial effects of reduced class sizes." Tens of billions of dollars have been poured into our schools to reduce class sizes by hiring more teachers. The outcome indicated by the performance of American students against those from other nations do not indicate that the money was well spent. We have actually fallen further behind, particularly in science and math. So rather than jumping to the generally accepted conclusion that just by pouring more money into hiring more teachers to meet an arbitrary class size limit we can improve the performance of our children, why not also try improving the effectiveness and quality of the teachers we have and hold them accountable for student performance?
My child went from a student teacher ratio of 8:1 in kindergarten outside FCPS to a ratio of 29:1 in first grade at Churchill Road ES. This is a shameful way to support teachers and students alike. The teachers have every reason to LEAVE to private schools or other school systems with better ratios. Even if the pay might not be the same, the teachers' quality of life is worth is the change. The children they teach are our future and yours- shall we give them as little attention as possible to make the budget work? Shall we leave the strugglers behind? Shall we bore the gifted students so they will never reach their potential? Wouldn't that be a stupid idea? Let's make our school system one that generates bored, stupid children taught by burnt out teachers. Great idea. I continue to vote for school bonds, but that's going to change if you continue to waste our money