[Vision2020] MSD Student-to-Teacher ratio

[macantr@uidaho.edu]

The statistics on students per teacher for the
Moscow School District indicate something good about
the MSD: they, and this town, have worked for years
to keep class sizes as small as possible in a state
which gives very little to education.  And for the
sake of our kids' educations, its important at all
times to try to keep those class sizes small. 

The reason MSD reported those comparatively
excellent stats of 15.22 students/teacher is because
that's the number.  One of the reasons Don Kaag made
his initial post, was because people (myself
included when I first started paying more attention
to our school district!) often don't realize there
is a difference between "students/teacher" and
average classroom size.  In May the 4 elementary
schools in the district averaged 20.2
students/classroom.  I don't have the numbers for
the junior high and high school, but their average
class size for core courses is substantially higher.

One nice thing about the general "students/teacher"
statistic is that it allows you to compare different
school districts throughout the state.  It seems to
me that the differences between "students/teacher"
numbers and "students/classroom," when used to
compare districts, might reflect either the wise use
of teachers in areas such as those pointed out by
Don Kaag and Mike Curley (band, chorus, special ed,
nonclassroom work, etc.), or they might reflect an
excessive amount of administration.  And that gets
into areas where these statistics aren't of much help.

Mac Cantrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Van Deventer, Jack" <jack@wsu.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2003 9:39 pm
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] MSD Student-to-Teacher ratio

> Thanks for the note, Don.  I see your point, but
the four points 
> you raised
> are equally applicable to all the other school
districts as well.  I
> appreciate your personal observations, but MSD
reported 15.22 
> students per
> teacher for a reason.  
> 
> Jack
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Don Kaag
> To: Vision 2020
> Sent: 5/15/03 8:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] MSD Student-to-Teacher ratio
> 
> Jack:
> 
> I didn't accuse Dale of anything, and I certainly
didn't abuse 
> him.  He 
> is a gentleman, as am I.
> 
> I illustrated my point, I believe, in a reasonable
fashion, with 
> examples.
> 
> Since I have the advantage of actually teaching
kids in the Moscow 
> School District to add to my arguments, and being
able to 
> physically 
> count heads in my classroom, it seems that I
should know more 
> about how 
> many of them there are, vice scanning a
statistical abstract 
> issued by 
> the State Department of Education.
> 
> By the way, the ISAT results are published, and we
as a District 
> scored 
> high in the state.  We must be doing something right.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Don Kaag
> 
> 
> On Thursday, May 15, 2003, at 07:36 PM, Van
Deventer, Jack wrote:
> 
> > This is really interesting.
> > Dale Courtney quotes the State of Idaho's annual
statistical report.
> > Don Kaag accuses Dale of oversimplifying.
> > Donovan Arnold says "Statistics don't lie, but
liars use statistics"
> >
> > These replies sound like the old adage, "If you
have no 
> argument, 
> > abuse the
> > plaintiff."
> >
> > If you guys don't like the stats, shouldn't you
be going after 
> MSD for
> > providing them and the State of Idaho for
reporting them?
> >
> > Jack
> > _____________________
> > Jack Van Deventer
> > jack@wsu.edu
> >
> >
_____________________________________________________
> >  List services made available by First Step
Internet,
> >  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >                http://www.fsr.net
> >           Vision2020@moscow.com
> >
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
> >
> 
> 
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet, 
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>               http://www.fsr.net                 
     
>          Vision2020@moscow.com
> ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
> 
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet, 
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>               http://www.fsr.net                 
     
>          Vision2020@moscow.com
> ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
>