A Guest Opinion posted in Friday's Brainerd Dispatch described the work of the Minnesota Chamber in 2017. One of the many topics described stated that when laying off teachers, teacher performance will be considered rather than just seniority.
In light of the discussion of removing more teachers from the classroom, I would like to stress the necessity of a smaller student-teacher ratio. Currently, the classroom size limit for a single teacher classroom in grades kindergarten through third grade is 25 students. Overwhelming research suggests that for early elementary school, both students and teachers benefit from classroom sizes of about 16 students.
As the child of a first grade teacher who taught for 29 years, I have seen first hand the increased fatigue and decreased job satisfaction that occurs when teachers are held responsible for too many students. Not only does job satisfaction benefit the teachers, but students also benefit from higher test scores as a result. This is due to the fact that teachers with smaller classroom sizes experience less work related stress. Less stress from work has also proven to increase confidence in the ability to perform well. In other words, teachers do their best work when they are not overwhelmed by large classroom sizes. Of course, paying to increase funding for schools is the downfall to keeping ratios small in classrooms. The question is, are Minnesotans willing to pay for a better education?
Becky Zahr
Apple Valley
