Our kindergarten class size topped out at 21 when my kids started school, but I think it's increased since then. The # of students per class goes up again as the grade levels increase. My youngest dd is in a private school which aims for the same # per class as the public schools and my oldest (ds) is in a private school which caps the class size at 18 (but he's been in a class that's less than 18). Although we've never had our kids in a classroom as large as the new OP's classroom will be, our experience has been that the teacher's style and personality, combined with the make-up of the students in the classroom are more of a challenge for a student who needs differentiation than class size. DS had a real mixed bag of experience with different teachers (and many of the same students in his class) through elementary school. There were a few kids who had behavior challenges that some of the teachers were able to handle, other teachers weren't on top of it and weren't in control. The teachers who weren't in control tended to have rather chaotic classrooms, and the teachers who had an ability to cope with challenges in the classroom were able to differentiate no matter the classroom size (if they believed in differentiation)... which is another hurdle - the school my kids were in for elementary tended to want everyone to be right there in the middle of the crowd in terms of achievement and ability. It took me a long time to realize though, that even with differentiation, our ds was so far out there in terms of thinking differently and grasping concepts quickly that differentiating to his ability level just wasn't practical in a regular classroom.
polarbear
