Larger Class Sizes Create a Series of Impacts

It’s no secret that the School’s 9th and 10th grade classes this year are larger than usual. Well, they’re not as large as the class sizes of public high-schools, but there is no doubt that the School has an abundance of students. 

Currently, there are 217 underclassmen in the Upper School (112 freshmen and 105 sophomores), but only 184 upperclassmen (94 juniors and 90 seniors). The big gap in class sizes is partially due to attrition, as a few kids leave throughout high school. Even with that, the two most recent 9th grade classes have accepted more kids than any other freshman? class in recent memory.

The larger class sizes have had a large impact on the School’s classes and scheduling. Dr. Jen Brakeman, the School’s 6th-12th scheduler, stated that scheduling can become difficult with larger class sizes, especially when there are only 6 sections per discipline. “I have to uphold maximum and minimum (amount of kids) for each section, so if there’s a huge grade with only 6th sections it’s hard to get kids into the sections without overdoing the maximum,” she said. 

Having a lot of students in a class also makes it more difficult for Brakeman to shift students’ schedules around when they want to change electives, since she has to worry about not overflowing any core class. 

The Upper School was able to increase the number of sections per subject to 7 in the 9th grade, which Brakemen says has made scheduling a lot easier. 

However, the impact of the larger grades is also noticeable in the classroom. Mark Schneider, a U.S. History 10 and Journalism teacher, says, “It definitely has an impact. With each additional student, there’s the time that goes into meeting with them when they need help…so the teacher’s time just gets stretched thinner.”  

Schneider feels that the ideal class size is 14 kids, since teachers can connect with the students on a more personal level. He added that there is not really enough room in his history classroom to fit over 18 kids, and one of his classes has 19 students. “We have 3 students sharing a desk that’s made for two in multiple places.” 

In addition, Schneider shares that the increasing class sizes have changed his  teaching style. “I’ve gone to do more (partner discussion, class shareouts), and group discussions while with the smaller class sizes in the 14-16 range, I was able to do more full-class discussions.”

Hannah Niles, the School’s 9th grade dean, is responsible for managing the freshman class. She feels the impacts of a large class can be felt in a literal way, since “there’s not enough seats in the MEW for the entire 9th grade class and for their advisors to sit.”

Furthermore, she believes the impacts can hamper personal connections, stating, “It’s really important for deans to know every kid in the class on a more individual level. This year is my first being [a] dean, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it just takes a while to get a good understanding of each kid individually.” Nonetheless, Niles doesn’t believe this is too big of a task to fulfill, as it only takes a week or two to get to know the extra kids.  

The larger class sizes have also had positive impacts, particularly on the students themselves. Niles explains, “I think that having more kids in the class, just by virtue of diversity, gives kids a higher chance of finding someone like them.”  

Whether or not the increasing class sizes have had overall negative or positive repercussions for the School, faculty has had to adjust to the changes.