I’m sorry, Katie, but this form of blame is incredibly misguided, and malinformed. Blaming teachers for wanting smaller class sizes is evidence that you’ve truly never walked the walk as an educator, tasked with moving a myriad of students to the next level. Instead, your ire should be pointed toward additional funding to pay teachers what they’re worth, and to actually bring more practitioners like yourself into classroom settings to support teachers. Rather than blaming people who’ve chosen not to sit in offices to do assessments, and write Substack articles. Quick version, smaller class sizes also lead to better student outcomes. Cheers!
True that I have never led a classroom, and of course I am not saying that reduced class sizes are bad. Increased funding directed toward improved compensation and working conditions for teachers is welcome. (Hence my suggestion in the footnote to fund more staff.) But public policy is all about choices and trade offs, and I’m not sold that we are making the right one here.
Also want to add that my ire is actually directed at Albany for passing this mandate without doing the analysis themselves or providing the funding and guidance to back it up.
I think teachers would also be happy to have more paraprofessionals in classrooms, at least for part of each class. That's a less expensive option per capita than hiring more teachers. But I agree that the broader issue is policy decisions that aren't sufficiently grounded in data...
I’m sorry, Katie, but this form of blame is incredibly misguided, and malinformed. Blaming teachers for wanting smaller class sizes is evidence that you’ve truly never walked the walk as an educator, tasked with moving a myriad of students to the next level. Instead, your ire should be pointed toward additional funding to pay teachers what they’re worth, and to actually bring more practitioners like yourself into classroom settings to support teachers. Rather than blaming people who’ve chosen not to sit in offices to do assessments, and write Substack articles. Quick version, smaller class sizes also lead to better student outcomes. Cheers!
True that I have never led a classroom, and of course I am not saying that reduced class sizes are bad. Increased funding directed toward improved compensation and working conditions for teachers is welcome. (Hence my suggestion in the footnote to fund more staff.) But public policy is all about choices and trade offs, and I’m not sold that we are making the right one here.
Also want to add that my ire is actually directed at Albany for passing this mandate without doing the analysis themselves or providing the funding and guidance to back it up.
I think teachers would also be happy to have more paraprofessionals in classrooms, at least for part of each class. That's a less expensive option per capita than hiring more teachers. But I agree that the broader issue is policy decisions that aren't sufficiently grounded in data...