Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-09-21
Teacher Shortage

teachers feel that our most
urgent need in the city
schools right now is for adj
ditional teachers, especially in
academic subjects.
We are amazed that not one
single salary for any addi-
tional teacher has been re-
quested for 1856. either on
the junior or senior high school
levels; worse yet. none is re-
quested for 1867.
Although our slow students
are being neglected, we feel
even more strongly that our
bright and average students.
who are our one great hope for
the future, are being miser-
ably mistreated when they are
showed into classes Of IS to so.
Grouping according to abil-
ity, as is now suggested, would
help only If we have the adj
ditional teachers to cut down
class size: no system Of
shuffiing students around will
help as long as teachers have
so many they can give in
dividual help to none.
The administration has
stated desirable aims for class
size on paper, but instead Of
coming closer to these aims,
we get further away each year
for a simple reason: student
enrolment goes up, but the
teaching staff does not keep
pace, especially in the college,
preparatory subjects.
You cannot achieve paper
aims without hiring new
teachers. 1t would take 80 new
junior high teachers (includ-
ing II in social studies. 10 in
English. 8 in Mathematics to
insure that no junior high
class had more than IS in 1t. 1t
would take "a new senior high
teachers to achieve this same
maximum Of IS. How many Of
these ll6 needed teachers are
being hired this fall? Not even
one! What price paper aims
of 1-to-28. when you don't
request 1/l16 of the teachers
needed for a l-to-35 maxi
mum?
1t is dangerously self-de-
ceptive to say that the junior
high average is / teacher
to % pupils when. out Of a
total of STA junior high
classes. the following chart is
true.
Number of classes Of IS to
80: 1894. or 80 per cent.
Number Of classes Of 40 to
A: 90l, or II per cent.
Number of classes over As:
288. or S per cent.
All these figures are based
on the Glass Size Report,
Office Of the School Stats
tician, December 10, 1854.
This oversize 40 per cent of
all junior high classes is not
at all helped by the fact that
81 per cent of all classes are
below IS; averaging them to-
gether just conceals a bad
situation. Obviously, a class
maximum Is needed, not
misleading class average.
The situation is worse be-
cause the smaller classes in
clude shops, aviation. home
economics, ETC.. while the
large classes are mainly the
basic academic subjects. Thus
there were 439 junior high
classes over 40 In these four
basic subjects alone: English.
119 classes; Mathematics,
119 classes: mathematics. ITO
classes: social studies. 1879
classes; science, II classes.
There were also II senior
high classes containing 40
students or more in these
same four basic subjects. In
English alone, there were las
classes of IS or more students.
We are glad to note that
the District PTA, the Fedora
ton of Citizens Associations.
the League of Women Voters.
and other citizens and parents
groups are urging action on
this problem. The parent
groups Of Wilson. Coolidge.
Western and Dunbar should be
particularly active since these
four schools send IS to 80 per
cent of their graduates to col
lege las compared to 46 per
cent as a national norm, and
their children need enough
teachers for reasonably small
classes in difficult academic
subjects.
1t is too late to get salaries
for additional teachers for
this fall, so our teachers are
once again sentenced to a
heart-breaking and difficult
year. It Is tragic to see chill.
dren whom you could helS