Its Time to Lower the Teacher to Student Ratio Essay -- Argumentative

Its Time to Lower the T individu entirelyyer to Student Ratio Growing up is hard enough to do in this day and age, further even more so when a small childs education is sacrificed. Todays classrooms, kindergarten through college levels, are experiencing a significant rise in the number of students in each class. This brings the teacher-to-student ratio to an unacceptable level. Teachers cannot effectively teach their students if there are too many in a single class. Therefore, it is extremely important for the United States educational system to take an in-depth investigation into this situation and work towards a better way for our children to learn in a more focused environment. For our childrens sake and for our future, we all must assist in finding a way to lower the teacher-to-student ratio. The long and short-term benefits of reducing class size affect the students and the teachers and will come about into the future. By reducing a class to an average of eighte en students, teachers are able to spend more one-on-one time with each student. In fact, in a study done in the United Kingdom proved that, Outcomes showed that in smaller classes the teachers interacted more effectively with the entire class, had more sustained interactions (25 seconds or more) with individual students, and required less time to manage individual students routines (Hargreaves, et al 123). Interactions, such as these, are especially important to those children in kindergarten through the tierce grade. With focuses on reading, writing, and math on children in this early stage of their education, research is showing that these children will carry the effects of a small class with them throughout the remainder of their academic... ...ize on Teacher-Pupil Interaction in Elementary School Classes in England Does Research Merely Confirm the Obvious? Paper prepared for the American educational Research Association Annual Conference, Chicago, March 1997. ED 40 9 123. Molnar, Alex., et al. 1997-98 Results of the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) Program. December 1998. Milwaukee, WI University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Shields, Patrick M., et al. Teaching and Californias Future. The Status of the Teaching art Research Findings and Policy Recommendations. A Report to the Teaching and Californias Future Task Force. Santa Cruz, California The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, 1999. 158 pages. U.S. Department of Education. Reducing Class size of it What Do We Know? Washington, DC Author, 1998. 17 pages. http//www.ed.gov/pubs/ReducingClass/.