Class sizes in WA are high. There was about 25 kids in my DDs K class and 29 kids in 1st grade class. In public gifted program which starts at 2nd grade, class size is around 20.
I feel K and 1st grade class sizes are the most critical ones due to kid's young ages and requiring much more attention. I volunteered in DD's class once a week when she was in K and 1st grade. The class was a chaos and no way an ideal learning environment. Especially wide range of skills was a big problem - kids who doesn't know ABC and kids reading chapter books in the same K class doesn't mix well.
Yes, and when the teachers do attempt to pull small groups to differentiate the rest of the class just wanders around or acts up in this age group. It's a lot of wasted time with lots of kids doing nothing.
I would love to see some actual decent research on what works and doesn't work in education. It shouldn't be that hard to at least take a look at the more successful countries and compare what they are doing to the U.S.
