WASHINGTON — When the Montgomery County Council voted on a proposal to add nearly $90 million to the school system’s budget, they did so, in part, to address the county’s achievement gap and reduce class size.
But does reducing the number of children in a classroom really matter?
There is research on both sides of the issue, said Christopher Lloyd, president of the Montgomery County Education Association.
“I’ve seen the research, I’ve read the research and I understand [it],” he said.
He said it’s possible for teachers to be highly effective, and for kids to learn a lot in a large classroom.
Lloyd is also a fourth-grade teacher at a Title 1 school (a school with a high number of children from low-income homes). He said teaching is more than instruction, especially at the elementary level.
“Teaching is, first and foremost, about relationship building,” Lloyd said. “And the more fourth-graders in my class, the harder it is for me to build meaningful relationships with each and every one of them.”
Why is it so important to build those relationships?
“Kids don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care,” Lloyd said.
Many students come from homes with fewer resources and greater needs. In Montgomery, nearly one-third of the system’s 156,000 students qualify for free and reduced-priced meals.
For those students, Lloyd said the smaller classroom gives teachers more of a critical commodity: “You’ve got more time — individual, one-on-one time to work with those children.”
Since 2009, the county school system increased class size, adding two more students to each classroom on average. Lloyd said the council’s latest budget move could reverse that.
The council will make a final vote on the county’s budget May 26.
