The start of another school year has heralded concerns from parents over class sizes at Montclair High School.
"My daughter has had some great teachers at MHS, especially this year. But as far as class size goes, I get the sense that the classes are large—generally 30 or more kids, and these are higher level classes," said parent Rick King. "So, as a parent, I get concerned about that. I worry that it could undermine the overall educational experience."
But Principal James Earle said average class sizes are the same as they have been for the last few years.
"We have always had several classes which have enrollments of 30 or more. Based on past practice, these classes typically have high enrollments for the first two weeks and then enrollments decline because students choose other options," he said. "When we assign more than 30 students to a class, it's usually one or two more students and with teacher consent."
Earle said that some classes have fewer sections because of course requests in the spring.
"Often when students return in the fall, they request to be enrolled in a class (or particular teacher) and we make every effort to accommodate," he said. "We will continue to work with students to honor their requests but we will devote more attention to class sizes.
"I am in the process of maybe dividing a few of the larger courses if we are able to adjust teacher schedules, which will reduce enrollment in some areas," he said.
According to New Jersey Monthly Magazine's biennial ranking of 328 public high schools in the state, the average class size at Montclair High School is now 21.3 while the combined average SAT score is 1629.
That's better than the numbers published in 2010, when the magazine noted an average class size of 34 and an average SAT score of 1617.
But, in 2010, the student-faculty ratio at Montclair High School was listed as 10.0 compared with 11.3 in 2012.
In the magazine's ranking, the school was listed in 99th place—down from the 94th spot in 2010.
What do you think of class sizes at Montclair High School? Let us know in the comments section below.
MC
8:39 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
I appreciate hearing Mr. Earle's point of view in this piece. I have an MHS sophomore, and he has 30+ kids in nearly every class. Based on Back-to-School Night presentations/conversations and start-of-school email intros/syllabi from the faculty, all the teachers seem capable. So while the figure seem high in theory, I don't have any specific concerns at this point in the school year. This would, however, be an important topic to track and get updates on over time.
mounties
9:10 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
Mr. Earle is a conman, he will say whatever you want to hear and do nothing. Test scores going down and taxes going up. Let’s get a principal from a district we want to be like not one we will become if this guy leads us any longer.
tryintosurvive
10:33 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Conman seems like an unfair characterization. Mr. Earle seems like he is trying to do the best that he can given the options available to him. Given the current budget level (which is very unlikely to be increased) and the cost of staff and benefits (which is very unlikely to be reduced) the class sizes cannot change very much. He has no way to change class size significantly, he can only make minor adjustments.
JohnAnthony37
11:15 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The Verona and Cedar Grove (for example) BOEs do not waste $000s annually on "school security guards" Why not retire those positions and transition that $ into hiring additional teachers at MHS and other district schools?
Why is there a need for security guards at MHS but not at Verona HS? If you would like to compare schools of a similar size, then compare MHS with Livingtson HS, which also does not waste $ on security guards.
Can anyone answer that ?