Imagine if you are a supervisor with 20 employees to manage on a
daily basis.
The setting could be a factory or office, a construction job
site or even a sports team.
Suddenly, the number of people that you have to organize and
manage each day jumps to 35.
Imagine if you are a supervisor with 20 employees to manage on a daily basis.
The setting could be a factory or office, a construction job site or even a sports team.
Suddenly, the number of people that you have to organize and manage each day jumps to 35.
Would the manager in this hypothetical situation be just as effective if he or she had the same schedule hours and resources?
Of course not.
Then why are San Benito High School District officials saying there isn’t much difference in results from students in classes of 20 or up to 35?
Isn’t that putting an unfair burden on teachers, who are already trying to meet increased performance demands with less tools?
Money, of course, is the problem.
SBHSD officials were worried about state cutbacks and should be. It’s hard to argue against any form of spending restraint with the state of California’s huge budget shortfall.
Spending a chunk of money to get state help in keeping teacher-to-student ratios at the high school at 20-1 is debatable. And the district did hire a few more teachers in certain subjects that are more overcrowded than others.
But let’s make sure the proper perspective is maintained and that the district keeps striving to lower classroom sizes, even if it involves spending some of its cash reserve to add teachers where needed.
Teachers are already frustrated with longer hours, children who are unsupervised at home, lousy pay and increased demands.
Sending the message that a classroom with 20 students in it isn’t much different than one with 35 students is not a good answer to a crucial math, results and fairness problem.
