BURIEN, Wash. — Data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows Washington often ranks in the bottom five states in the country for student to teacher ratio.
However, test results for fourth and eighth grade math, reading, science and writing are still above the national average.
In Burien, Cedarhurst Elementary School will serve almost 800 students this year, in a building made for 610.
Principal Bobbi Giammona said that some para-educators even teach groups of kids in entryways for lack of space.
Giammona just received more funding from the district this year to hold more lunch sessions. Last year, sixth-graders had to sit so tightly at the lunch table they had to turn their lunch trays vertically to fit.
Inside the classroom, Giammona said they will often have close to 30 students per teacher.
“We have kids who speak other languages, we have kids who have socio-economic differences. We have all sorts of kids. Every one of them is amazing, but their needs are very different,” Giammona said.
Superintendent of Highline Public Schools, Susan Enfield, said “As the state continues to roll out its K-3 class size reduction money, we’ll have a hard time taking advantage of that in future years, because we just won’t have the space.”
Their district’s voters will see a bond measure this fall to raise property taxes to fund more school buildings.
Enfield said if the legislature fully funds education, there are many needs in the district she’d like to see met.
But one important part of the puzzle is having a highly qualified teacher handle a manageable class size.
Kari Hanson, principal at John Hay Elementary School in Seattle, said her school is still about 100 students over capacity, which is already better than previous years.
“What we have found here to be absolutely paramount: If you really want kids to grow and move, you want to bring that instructional size down.”
She said she may not see class sizes get much smaller by the end of her career in education, but she said even having more teaching support staff to help small groups within a large class can make a big difference.
KIRO
