# of students in school/class size?

[quinnsmom]

I got to thinking about this after reading the "Competitive School" thread. How many students are in your child's school total and how many students are in your child's class? Do you think the class size has a direct correlation to how happy or successful your child has been while attending?

We are moving this summer - we haven't decided on a particular area yet - a lot depends on what we find housing-wise. I'm also looking at the different schools in the area and am basing a big part of where we look on how large the school is student-population wise. Right now both kids attend private school but will attend public after we move. There are about 350 kids total (PK-8 school) in our current school. DD has 18 students in her class and DS has 16.

When thinking long-term -what concerns me the most is the middle school and high school numbers. We are looking at 2 towns. One town has 480 students in the middle school (grades 5-8) and 620 in the high school. The other town has 1100 in the middle school (grades 6-8) and 1900 in the high school.

In your opinion - would the numbers sway your decision either way on which town to choose? The town with the schools with the larger student populations has more to choose from in terms of real estate and conveniences. But the town with the smaller schools have better test scores and smaller class sizes with more expensive houses and higher property taxes of course.

DH and I both went to schools much larger than these and we're no worse for it. One part of us think they will be fine in the larger school (DH thinks I am worrying too much about it.) But then I think of the small private school atmosphere that they are in now and see that they are thriving. I would love to hear your opinions on this.

[Indianamom2]

DD is in 1st grade at a very small K-12 Christian school. I think there are around 150 kids total. It used to have more, but the economy is really hurting the school.

Her class size has 8 students in it. Last year she had 11. Her class is a little small, most are around 12.

[AnnieW625]

How many students are in your child's school total and how many students are in your child's class? Do you think the class size has a direct correlation to how happy or successful your child has been while attending?

K-8 Catholic School, 300 students
31 kids in DD1's class, they will take up to 36 kids. There is a full time aide in the class so it is 18 to 1. There is also plenty of release time activities as they have a PE teacher, librarian, computer teacher, and music/art/drama teacher so there are some days where all of the kids don't spend more than an hour or two together through out the day (it is a full day program, 7:50 to 2:40).

When thinking long-term -what concerns me the most is the middle school and high school numbers. We are looking at 2 towns. One town has 480 students in the middle school (grades 5-8) and 620 in the high school. The other town has 1100 in the middle school (grades 6-8) and 1900 in the high school.

Our home middle school, which is good and I wouldn't have an issue sending our girls if we were to do public middle school has 1100 students for 6, 7, and 8 grade. I don't think that is too many kids as the jr. high that DH and I went to had about 800 and we lived in a much smaller city with only 40,000 people at the time. My main concern about middle school is that 6th graders are so young to be in middle school and would prefer a 7-8 middle school, but I don't think that is an option many places. My girls both have April birthdays with December cut offs (at least DD1, when DD2 starts K it will be the first year of a Sept. 1 cut off) and we live in an area with a fair amount of redshirting of boys with Spring/Summer birthdays so my little 11 yr. old could be going to school with a 14 yr. old 8th grader. I didn't go through most of puberty (ie: getting boobs, having to shave my legs, and wearing a training bra) until I was almost 12 and being in elementary school then was such a nice safety net.

In your opinion - would the numbers sway your decision either way on which town to choose? The town with the schools with the larger student populations has more to choose from in terms of real estate and conveniences. But the town with the smaller schools have better test scores and smaller class sizes with more expensive houses and higher property taxes of course..

I would go with the area that I was most comfortable with. Look at what you can buy in large area, and what you can buy in small area. If you won't have to buy another home in the larger area for quite some time and can buy in one of the best areas of the city then I might not have a problem with the larger school numbers as long as the education is good. If you can't buy a larger home in the best area and you know that the schools in the smaller area are better in the long run then I would go with the smaller area.

If you know that you truly want the smaller school feel for your kids can you see yourselves living in the same house on the best block in small area for a long time?

Yes, which is why we chose to buy in our area even though we weren't really sure we were going to use public schools.

DH and I both went to schools much larger than these and we're no worse for it. One part of us think they will be fine in the larger school (DH thinks I am worrying too much about it.) But then I think of the small private school atmosphere that they are in now and see that they are thriving. I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Both DH and I went to schools in the same city (he's 3 yrs. older) and although our high school had only 1700 students, which isn't small or isn't really big the thought of 4400 students at our local high school with limited smaller academic programs scares us, but the high schools don't have really bad crime issues and a few of them end up in the top 500 high school rankings that Newsweek does, but it is just not what we were used to and if the girls go from a small 300 kid k-8 school to 4400+ size public high school and aren't in an honors program it is going to be quite a shock; but about a 1/2 of the kids who graduate from DD1's school do get into one of the honors programs at one of the local high schools, the other half go to private high school and many of those are boys. Of course a lot could change in the next 9 yrs., but at this time DH is pretty adament that he'd rather the girls go to a smaller Catholic high school.

[Kindra178]

400 kids at ds1's school and 19 kids in his multi-age classroom.

[crl]

Nearly 700 kids in ds' grade school. His second grade class is 22 with one teacher, but the numbers go up in the upper grades.

I worry a great deal about middle school. Given ds' ADHD and current academic struggles, I think switching classes frequently, bigger class sizes and increased responsibility for keeping track of homework may be very problematic.

Catherine

[egoldber]

My older DD has been in 2 elementary schools in our district. Our neighborhood base school for grades 1-3 and now a school which is a neighborhood base school + a center/magnet type school. The neighborhood school had 450ish students in grades K-6 and the center school has 1000ish students in grades K-6.

Hands down she is happier in the larger school. We were worried about the larger size, but the reality has meant that there are more kids and more opportunities to develop friendships. The class sizes between the 2 schools have been pretty similar, 20-25 depending the grade.

[KrisM]

Our K-2 elementary has nearly 500 kids. There are around 175 kindergarteners!

Each class is 22-26, depending on the grade level.

[american_mama]

I generally think small is better in many things, but I don't think I would consider it a make or break point in your case. If your kids are very introverted or really seem to have a hard time making friends, I'd probably lean towards the smaller school system. If they seem to have a strong talent or interest in something that one school is stronger in, I'd lean towards that school (like a much better choral program for a child who adores singing, or science/computer resources for a child who adores that). But I don't think the size of the middle or high school would be critically iimportant to me otherwise.

As for class size, our public school has small class sizes, usually 15-20 per class, so a class of 24 or more would make me ask extra questions. I'd especially ask if the larger class sizes are indicative of budget cuts and difficulty getting enough money for a good educational environment. But if that wasn't the case and I felt like the teachers and school could handle the larger class sizes, my concerns would ease.

[HIU8]

DS has roughly 400 in his school. It's a private K-12. There are currently 8 kids in his K class and only 1 K class. He also has 2 teachers.

Next year DD will be in K with 25-27 kids per class, 1 teacher, 3-4 classes (they are not sure of enrollment yet) and 1 aid for all the classes.

[ast96]

My kids are in a public elementary school with approx. 780 students. Florida has class size laws and they can't have more than 18 per class in K-3, 22 per class in 4th and 5th. My second grader has 18 in his class and my fourth grader has 21.

I wouldn't let school size bother me. It's how they handle the school size that counts.