An article appeared in the New York Times yesterday showcasing a Massachusetts school that didn’t let large class sizes stop them from improving test scores. By bringing writing and reading assignments into every school subject (gym included!) The school is now outperforming 90% of other schools in Massachusetts. Reading and writing bring to bear creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and enhanced language capabilities. They foster independence, making class size less of a factor in academic success.
The debate about size has raged on in a number of areas: raising kids in the country versus the city, large university lecture halls versus small seminars, big corporations versus family run small businesses. Each has its pros and cons. For the past several years, small classroom size in public schools has been a hot-button issue. The example of the Massachusetts school doesn’t give us a definitive answer one way or the other, and maybe that’s the point. Any circumstances can breed success – it’s the individuals that comprise the group that can truly make the difference.
To read the full article about the school in Massachusetts, click here. What do you think? Is class size as big an issue as we make it out to be?
Published by Christa Avampato
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
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An article appeared in the New York Times yesterday showcasing a Massachusetts school that didn’t let large class sizes stop them from improving test scores. By bringing writing and reading assignments into every school subject (gym included!) The school is now outperforming 90% of other schools in Massachusetts. Reading and writing bring to bear creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and enhanced language capabilities. They foster independence, making class size less of a factor in academic success.
Christa Avampato 
Class size matters if the teacher does not have good organization and control skills. I’ve seen some teachers in full control of a class with as many as 35 students. I’ve seen some teachers not able to handle a class of 10.
The more students you have, depending on the age and grade level can make a difference.
I found out yesterday that schools in my area are no longer accepting student teachers. The reason? The full time teacher does not want to lose time with their students to prepare them for the State exam…how sad
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Wow! That is sad. And isn’t student teaching needed to help those college students secure teaching jobs? That’s really disappointing to hear. Anything that can be done to reverse that decision – it sounds like a very short-sighted choice.
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Also, when we get to concerned about the test scores, what happens to creativity in teaching? In a school in NYC, recess was cut out of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. All of the”free time” was geared towards getting students ready for the State test. The school did better but its questionable if the students learned anything or better yet, retained anything after the test was given
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Creativity is completely underrated in public school systems today, and yet it’s the skill I rely on most in my professional life. Hearing comments like yours make me even more determined to get a pilot of Innovation Station into a public school. Thanks for the inspiration!
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I’ve been a school teacher for nearly four years and have taught classes of widely varying sizes. On average, around 90% of my kids pass their 10th Grade E.O.C. Here are some thoughts:
1. Show me one high-end private school that decides to raise its class sizes from 13 to 40 because this report from MA. As a parent, where would you rather put your fifteen-year-old if you had a choice? In a class of 40 or a class of 15?
2. For a class with over thirty students, even on-task student interaction becomes a deafening roar. Plus transition time is increased. That limits lesson activity options. There’s a ton of activities I can do with a class of twenty that I really can’t do as effectively with thirty or more.
3. You grade more thoroughly when you have only 60 essays to grade, rather than 120. Teachers deserve to have lives, especially at our level of pay.
4. For a class of over 30, the most motivated students will get attention because they have the confidence to ask for it. The most troublemaking students get attention because they demand it. The shy kids and the average kids get short-changed. As a teacher I know this is a problem, and I do my best to address it. But I’m not Superman, and it’s much easier to accomplish this with smaller classes.
6. Keeping good parental contact with each student becomes a nightmare when class sizes are large.
7. In China I’m told class sizes are over 60 and every student is very well-behaved. That’s great, but the United States is not China.
7. Yes, it’s perfectly possible to get large classes to pass and even score well on state tests. It’s certainly true that a good teacher can manage a class of 40 students and a bad teacher may have trouble controlling ten. But show me one teacher who says that he or she can do a *better* job of educating a class of 40 students than a class of ten. The quality of education goes down above 30 students. It just does.
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