Crunching Numbers

I teach at a school with over 1600 students.

There are 13-15 full/part time English teachers at my school.

In the New York City Department of Education, the maximum number of students that can be enrolled in a class is 34.

I teach 5 classes.

All 5 classes have 34 students in them.

In total, I teach 170 students.

I give a minimum of 1 major essay every 6 weeks.

That means I grade at least 170 major essays every six weeks.

I give a minimum of 1 project every 6 weeks.

That means I grade at least 170 projects every six weeks.

I give around 10 homework assignments every six weeks.

That means I grade around 1700 homework assignments every six weeks.

There is an attempt at our school to require teachers to contact parents via phone 2 times per semester, or 4 times per year.

That means I would have to make 680 phone calls per year.

For years, educators have been pushing for reduced class size in public schools; lobbyists have long considered it a key to education reform. Administrators and public officials have long promised to use funds to help achieve it, and yet here I am, teaching 170 wonderful kids who I can't give enough individual attention to because of the sheer enormity of my workload. The NYC DOE is being sued by the UFT for promising (and failing) to spend money towards reducing class size.

Instead, the money is spent on just about everything BUT reducing class sizes. The closest we get are charter schools, which are given smaller class sizes (23, on average), greater selectivity of students, updated facilities, and greater autonomy. OF COURSE they are outperforming public schools- they have had four of the public system's greatest challenges removed.

Teachers and students alike are hurt by large class sizes. The only thing that seems to benefit is the school budget, which gets more money if more students are crammed in.