Many Steinbrenner students have heard the population count of this year’s student body and are shocked by the number. Steinbrenner has 2,441 students attending school this year.
It no surprise that the hallways and lunches are crowded and it is causing frustration among students, but another issue regarding the student population presents itself in the classroom.
Overcrowding of the classrooms is a concern that many students and teachers share regarding what it means for both teaching and learning. There are many standards put in place by both the state and district to ensure that classrooms are kept within the allowable limits of size to maximize the ability of the teacher to teach and the student to learn.
However, this limit is only placed on regular and honors classes. Advanced Placement classes are a different situation altogether and do not follow the same guidelines regarding class population.
No matter what subject is taught within the AP class, they are considered electives and larger numbers of students are allowed in the same classroom because it is held to a different standard by the district when compared to non-AP courses. Required classes for graduation that are taken at an AP level can have caps while other AP classes are considered more elective classes and have no cap.
Students know that public school is not a place designed for individualized and special learning but it is a place that many students feel they can receive a quality learning experience. However, this raises the question: Are students still able to receive a quality experience when so many are being placed in the same classroom?
There are many effects on both the teachers and the students with putting so many students in the same classroom that should be considered when choosing how many students to place in a classroom.
Student morale and willingness to participate drops as a result of students not feeling like their education is any different from the many others within their classes.
“There are probably some students who are reluctant to ask the question simply because there are so many other people in the room. In a smaller group you can create more of a sense of family and supportiveness as opposed to having 33 other bodies, ” said AP Psychology teacher Cathy Jones.
Teachers are strained when they are required to teach larger numbers of students and they may spend more time managing the larger class number than being able to effectively teach the students simply because there are so many people in the room.
“It affects my grading and being able to turn papers around quickly. It just can’t happen. I have over 200 students everyday. I don’t do as many graded assignments as I might otherwise if I had 25 students in a class. There are fewer interactive activities than I would like simply because the room is so full of bodies,” said Jones.
Sometimes schools struggle to find enough resources to support the amount of students placed in each class. Textbooks are expensive and there may not be enough to provide to all students in need of one. There are also specific AP classes that require extra materials such as AP sciences that call for lab materials needed for experiments and learning. This can be difficult for the school to provide when there are many students taking that course.
Student performance is directly correlated to the teacher’s ability to teach. If the teacher is hindered by the amount of students in their class then the students will feel the effects as well. A teacher may not be able to get through all of the course material because they are too busy maintaining control of the class and this will present a problem for the student when they take the AP test in May.
“It’s hard to get around. It doesn’t seem to matter how I configure my desks. Simply walking in a student’s direction has a tendency to make them get back on track. I think its easier to maintain a higher level of student engagement when you have fewer people, no matter how I try and look around the room and keep up with everybody,” said Jones.
Classroom size regarding AP courses within Steinbrenner walls has never been out of control but many classes have a student population above what is allowed in other honors and regular courses. Keeping this in mind, we should recognize that a student’s education is not something we should be so quick to risk.
The more AP students enrolled in classes, the more funding a school generally receives and the better rating they may get. By placing this pressure on the system, schools can become more concerned with not tarnishing their reputation than with the students they are educating.
Lauren Johnston // Backpage Editor
