No, not me. Though I don’t get much of a chance to exercise it these days, I actually have some affinity for numbers. No, this deficit exists in the administration.
No, no, not the Administration; I’m not going there today, where numbers are concerned. Maybe soon, but not today. Today I’m pointing at the folks responsible for decisions down the block there at our neighborhood elementary school.
I wrote earlier about our skewed classroom crowding situation. Go ahead and click and get yourself on board if you need to. I’ll wait right here.
All right then. As it turns out, there were some more interesting facts lying about, that with my kindergarten-centric world I hadn’t yet heard when I posted earlier. And while I stand by my points regarding the kindergartners, this is perhaps a step even closer to egregious.
I’ve learned that the 2nd-grade class has 76 students (remember, K=71; 3rd = 49). Due to its size, this class has had four sections ever since kindergarten. But this year? This year it was condensed into three sections, to make room for the preschool program to be housed at the school.
Again, I’m going to revisit the numbers. 3rd grade: 49 students, in three sections of 16, 16, 17. 2nd grade: 76 students, in three sections of 24, 26, 26.
Now, for funsies, let’s play with those numbers here, oh, just because. Let’s say that the classroom for the preschool had been obtained by eliminating a section from the 3rd grade instead, giving them two sections of 24 and 25, and the 2nd grade would have its four sections with, let’s see now, 19 in each.
Total number of students subjected to crowding in the administration’s choice of structure: 76.
Total under another entirely feasible structure: 49.
This doesn’t seem like higher math. So I’d like to know what other factors were weighed, beyond the numbers.
And you know what? I’m going looking for an answer. Because I want to know if one of the factors was creating the optimal environment for those fewer 3rd-grade students to prepare for their standardized tests, at the expense of half again as many 2nd-graders. Because I believe that would be putting the scores ahead of the students in the worst of ways. Which to my mind is wrong with a big old capital W — or flip it over, M for Moronic.
And if this nagging suspicion of mine is correct, what then? Well, I’m not sure. But standing silently by in the face of injustice and/or stupidity isn’t something I’ve ever been much good at. We’ll have to see.
