Running Head: SA INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT Martinez 1

Leonard Martinez

September 18, 2019

SED 322

SA Individual Assignment

Introduction to the Problem

 Target a problem within one of the following: curriculum, relationship between

teachers and students, community/parent involvement, an area of teacher activism in

public education) *no real names should be included

o Target problem: Student/Teacher ratio (in Arizona and Nationwide)

o Affect(s): relationships between teachers and students, curriculum, classroom

management, physical stress on teachers and students, funding, community, state,

city, school administration, faculty, anyone and anything that the student in this

over sized classroom comes in contact with.

 Introduction provides specific information for each of the following: stakeholders

involved, background of the problem, existing challenges, potential barriers

o Problem I’m choosing to research and analyze is the Teacher/Student Ratio in our

schools. The problem in our classrooms (internship wise in Glendale Arizona and

nationwide) is the ratio of students present and how many students are assigned to

each classroom on the secondary level. According to public school review, the

average nationwide ratio should be 16:1. With respect to our problem here in

Arizona, in the Secondary Level of education in the state, our student teacher ratio

is 23:1 as of 2016 (TeacherRatio, 2019). Although this number has fluctuated

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through the years, I specifically chose this area because I have firsthand seen how

the number of students compared to teacher affects curriculum and student

relationship with their instructors. As the norm should be 18-24 students per class,

in the recent article published by a public new station of Arizona called Fox 10,

which followed closely the Red For Ed movement in Arizona and voiced

educators problems all around many districts statewide, it was noted that in

Arizona, we (teachers) are looking at 35-40+ students per classroom; extremely

high compared to the norm or national average (Rodewald, 2018). Therefore, like

the Red for Ed teacher who protested and voiced, that classroom sizes are an

extremely big problem in our state and overall nationwide for educators.

o Stakeholders involved consist of a variety of multiple key players. As simple as

the problem may be at first glance, it includes and affects a variety of key

stakeholders and one of the main ones is of course the teacher of the

overpopulated classroom. Since this teacher is the one managing instruction and

classroom management, in Michael Fanning’s findings for his thesis in The

Relationship between Stress in Public School Elementary Teachers and

Conditions in the Classroom he confirms with his data that dealing with

overpopulated classrooms make a stressful environment where teachers cannot be

fully productive, they are stressed and are essentially overworked (Fanning, p. 45,

1997). Furthermore, students are stakeholders who can lack a genuine relationship

with their teacher or allow for one-on-one help if needed so. Essentially the

instructor is greatly hindered from giving his full divided attention when needed

be. When such patterns are in place, we see a “get in get out” type of classroom
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where, although instruction may be occurring, it’s hindered from being genuine,

productive, intentional, and fruitful for its students (Fanning, p.46-47, 1997). With

the students being affected as one of the main stakeholders, we see parents have a

disconnect from the classroom and curriculum. Since there is no relationship

present between the students and the teachers, the parents fall back along the same

lines with a disconnect of familiarity from the classroom and its educator.

Although parents and students may want to initiate relationship in some shape or

form with the teacher, the teachers lack relationship will show and the teacher will

not be able to assist because he does not know the student or family. Another

stakeholder is the school itself and the district. Since there are no connections

between student and teacher, curriculum tends to be poor therefore academically

students just as poorly as the teachings. Students that need extra help cannot be

provided with the attention they need because of fault of connection with

instructor and oversized classrooms simply cannot meet that demand.

Additionally, come the time when scores need to be assessed for school funding,

the school along with the class suffer because there is no additional funding

provided because of the scores to which funding is based on and distributed are

not properly met. Additionally, the district and school are the primary participants

who put/assign the students into your classroom. The stem to which

overpopulated classrooms impact much more areas but these are some of the most

alarming ones worthy to mention.

o As mentioned above, the existing numbers show that there has been a problem

and the background of the problem stems further than just immigration and a
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growing state with respects to my internship experience and Glendale, Arizona.

According to my respective mentor teachers to wish I had a privilege of

shadowing thanks to Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State

University, this problem has been existent for a long time here in Arizona and

nothing has changed, it has only proceeded to get much worse. Especially with

my current teacher and his many years teaching, he states that these past 10 years

have been the same with overpopulated classrooms at our respective school.

Reason being is the district to which the school belongs to does not have enough

money to hire new teachers and new teachers do not want to teach in this school

because of the low income community to which it resides in and simply public

schools in Arizona are mostly all Title 1. New teacher much prefer private charter

schools in today’s age because, as my mentor teacher puts it, they pay better and

have smaller classroom sizes. It does not help that we live in a state that deeply

undervalues and underpays our teachers. Not only this, the teachers we have are

untrained to deal with proper classroom management and therefore we have such

a bad teacher shortage in Arizona. Statistics back up the claim that our classroom

are over filled but there is a notion we have settled with the mindset of the “oh

well” “put up with it” with our teacher handling overpopulated classrooms. As

professor Robert Schwartz mentions from her study in Effects of Teacher-Student

Ratio in Response to Intervention Approaches “Teacher expertise and teacher-

student ratio are factors that contribute to optimizing instruction for students at

risk of developing difficulties in learning” (Schwartz, paraphrased, 2012).

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o With the indicator of the student to teacher ratio being extremely uneven, there is

a variety of problems that arise. First is the teacher shortage to cater to these

crowds of students. There is simply not enough staff to go around to cater to every

need and every student as we essentially would want to. With overcrowding

classrooms, it is almost impossible to get through a lesson fully as originally

planned because of discipline issues, interruptions, distractions, and various other

negative factors. With more kids, there's more room for students to have clashes

with each other because there's more students to manage. Another major problem

is the student in the shadows who falls behind and need our attention. Essentially,

failing students stay failing and fall behind because the teacher of that

overpopulated classroom is too busy managing the classroom rather than teaching

it and giving students who need extra help the proper attention they deserve. With

having to do much more than a normal sized classroom, we see over stressed

teachers having to manage feelings and attitudes of feeling burnt out; contributing

to the teacher shortage. With overcrowding and not enough space in the

classroom, we run into problems of not being able to incorporate learning

enhancement in our classrooms as some teacher may desire. Such examples can

be technology or equipment like a computer lab or a reading corner that can be

essential for the growing learning experience in or classrooms and giving it proper

attention for student to flourish and explore. Instead, agendas for lectures stay the

same, academic growth stays the same, and the flow of the class is simply to get

through a lesson and look for another stressful day tomorrow.

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o Some potential barriers that come with overcrowded classrooms tend to be major

effects on the teacher and the trickledown effect on the students. The main one is

deplorable working conditions as the masses of students hinders the teachers

working ability and progression with her/his students. Such barriers then lead to

other barriers like conflict and poorly designed teachings. As Dr. Amber Nicole

Cowell of Arizona State University writes in her thesis, she simply points out with

relation in Arizona alone and several parts of the Unites states that “Reasoning

towards why class sizes are reaching high mid thirty’s can be from budget cuts,

teacher shortages, and huge influx of incoming students (Cowell, 2018).With all

this, we see a big barrier grow even more in Arizona's systemic educational

system where progression seems to be at a standstill with no proof of growth. The

overarching effects of all this is the students who receive it at full punch. Students

are not empowered to be leaders or challenged to think outside the box because

these barriers exist, and the teacher cannot nurture a student at a time. In all,

student/teacher ratio is a barrier to a growing education in any classroom.

Environmental Analyses

Provide specific information regarding each of the following areas of an Environment

Analysis S/T Ratio

 Internal Strengths: Resources or capabilities that help the classroom or school

accomplish its mission

o For internal strengths, there is none when it comes to overpopulated classrooms.

The only possible strength one can look at for classroom ratios is that there are
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more students at the school, therefore finding students for clubs or sports or

simple participation is a given advantage for student population. An interesting

finding by Lori Garrett-Hatfield’s article in Seattle PI called “the Advantages and

Disadvantages of Class Sizes”, the Author notes that having student learn

independency tends to be a positive outcome out for large classroom sizes.

Although seemed to be noted as a forced learning trait rather than taught,

professor Lori states “one major advantage to teaching a large class in secondary

school is that classes are usually high energy, fun and exciting; the classes go by

quickly and are rarely boring; and most students are willing to participate.

Because core lessons take longer to complete, filler lessons that students dislike

rarely happen. In addition, students must learn independence and self-motivation

because teachers have less time to work one-on-one with students. Students may

also learn to work well in groups because group work becomes a necessity in

large classrooms” (Garrett-Hatfield, 2019). Contrary as Elvira Folmer found in a

“large number of studies, that small classes have positive and sometimes enduring

effects on student achievement, especially for ethnic minority students and

students from low socio-economic status groups” rather than big classrooms

(Folmer, 2009). So, although there is some highlights on Lori’s finding,

classroom size, academically, gives better results. Why is this? Well according to

an analysis of Method Schools, who incorporate small classroom size for their

schools under their website, they describe that there is a hug importance

underlying the critical role the teacher plays in instruction, especially one-on-one

interactions. Having more attention form the teacher simply shows that students
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show more engagement, therefore they also learn better and do better

academically (What are the Advantages of Small Class Sizes?, 2019).

Additionally, they note that there is less disruptions, more time for instruction

instead of having to focus on classroom management (seen in larger classroom

sizes) and are more student led rather than a teacher have to rush through material

by trying to balance classroom management and instruction daily (What are the

Advantages of Small Class Sizes?, 2019).

 Internal Weaknesses: Deficiencies in resources or capabilities that hinder a classroom

or school’s ability to meet its mission

o Taking first person account from my internship, where I am placed at Glendale

Highschool, under a mentor teacher where his classroom size is above 35 students

and above for all his 6 period, I see internal observations starting with, al the

textbooks are disorganized, and the peer tutor and teachers’ desk is full of clutter.

This shows to me that the teacher is more concerned about teaching than simple

classroom layout and cleanliness. There is also major clutter in the back with desk

and other various objects blocking passageways. Through transitions, students can

not properly get around. When speaking to my mentor teacher about this, the

teacher stated that he refuses to clean up because he is essentially too tired to

every day. This attributes to teacher burnout. The teacher has at least 40 students

each class, therefore the classes he teaches are way over populated thus less room

to move around and assist students efficiently. With clutter and overpopulation of

40 sophomores, the environment for working is very stressful as a teacher. Not to

mention the classroom management that needs to be put in each class and
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behavior regulations. The school is also very adamant about not failing student to

make classroom size go down, so teachers are required to pass students. The

classroom sharpeners are upfront near the smart board therefore when a student

needs to sharpen his pencil it is very distracting to the overall class. Assignments

basket to turn in assignment is in the front also and this is another distraction.

Utterly, from being in one class that is overpopulated, I see the stress put among

teacher, simple factors of classroom layout affecting students, and the among of

classroom management needed to be implemented because there is a lot of

movement in class during lecture or learning times.

 External Opportunities: Outside factors or situations that the classroom or school can

take advantage of to better fulfill its mission

o Classroom sizes are not going, districts refuse to pay less due to funding,

therefore teacher burnout rates exceed the demand to even work. No one wants to

teach 40+ classroom sizes and this has become a norm in areas of low

socioeconomic communities. Additionally, due to low funding, many schools do

not have the necessary staff to provide extra help with. Funding is a major

attribution to which professor Garrett-Hatfield notes that schools do not go with

low classroom sizes or even approach to try and accommodate such class sizes. In

his same study as previously noted, he emphasizes and argues that districts simply

do not have the correct amount of funding to hire more professionals to disperse

the student population and therefore cater to smaller classroom sizes (Garrett-

Hatfield, 2019). Such aspects allow for teacher to be strategic to how they staff

their classes. For example, the usage of peer tutors in my internship classroom is
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clear, but even then, it is not enough as the peer tutor helps lighten up the teacher

workload with grading or assistance. At my internship, it is mandated that if a

classroom has more than 4 students on IEP’s, there needs to be help in the

classroom, not because they care about classroom sizes. Many classes like the one

at my internship have more than just 4 students who are SPED and there are no

additional resources in these oversized classrooms to help all the students in need.

If the studies show for students who are SPED or ELL, connections with peers

and having positive mainstream classroom experiences are fruitful to their

engagement and growth, then oversized classrooms are not helping, yet casting

them to the side instead of being nurtured. As Folmer mentions “An example is a

study recently conducted by Blatchford and colleagues (Blatchford et al., 2008),

which concluded that in small classes students were more frequently the focus of

teacher’s individual attention, an effect that was observable for students with

different attainment levels” (Folmer, 2009). This is alarming as Nathan Barrett

explains in his Reward or punishment? Class size and teacher quality, the

experience students have with teacher determines teacher quality, therefore reflect

classroom quality and the learning experience (Barrett, p. 2-3, 2013). Barrett

further explains in his Teacher Effectiveness section teacher matter; therefore, we

need to hire more newly educated teacher on more higher number in order to

combat the effects of classroom size (Barrett, p. 2, 2013), but again we hit the

argument of funding. In all, less staff means less help therefore the teacher and

staff that are in place at our schools are overworked, underappreciated,

understaffed, and burnt out.

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 External Challenges: Outside factors or situations that can affect your classroom or

school in a negative way, making it harder to fulfill the mission.

o As mentioned, funding is the major external challenge. Not to mention the

community in which the school I intern in is inside a poverty ridden community

as well prevalent occurrences of violence and drug use. With these factors in

mind, our students are not the brightest or the best behaved so coming in with all

the baggage from home and their surroundings impacts their learning experience

and their ability to succeed. As mentioned before class sizes affect how much

time a teacher can have with its students and with the environments to which the

students live in, not many have access to technology, not many have parents at

home to help them with homework or keep them accountable. Most of all,

observing my low SES school students, many have second jobs where it's hard to

focus on schoolwork and better yet class. with oversized classrooms, these

students are basically getting a dry education where it leads them nowhere

fruitful. The community is a major hindering factor where they are already, at

most in Glendale Arizona, a forgotten statistic among the streets.

Stakeholder Analysis

 Who are the “stakeholders” within this problem? (Identify all individuals/groups affected

by this problem)

o Major stakeholder is the student who is affected when having to be in an overcrowded

classroom. The student is the one who is assigned seating and participates in an

overcrowded classroom and therefore suffers along with its peers. With reference to
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the student le and major factors at home, stakeholders from home are also the families

to which the student resides with and shared the stresses of school and performance.

Typically mother and father and siblings who are affected by the stress of the student

doing homework and even the assistance in completing such assignments when the

student does not have help or is used as a venting system to explain why they suffer at

school with their grades. Typically, in accordance with their neighborhood and

various things that affect the students background, the family cannot help with such

assignments and the student then look towards other siblings or friends to ask for

help; student and teacher ratio extends further form the classroom and comes home

with the neglect of not being able to help students accordingly. Friends as in other

peers or even older friends tend to be other stakeholders that can be defined as the

student’s “community” that is affected by having been in, are in, or know about what

it means to be in an overcrowded classroom. As defined by the “Glossary of

Education Reform'', stakeholders is defined as anyone who is “invested in the welfare

and success of a school and its students” and with that we can see why various factors

like friends, mentors, Rec Centers, case managers, and various other aspects in the

community can be also stakeholders to whom the child asks for help when neglected

in the class or is assisted with additional tutoring, mentor ship, or used as a resources

for help on assignments (Stakeholder Definition in Education, 2014). Additionally,

the teacher is a stakeholder. By assigning seats to try and manage his/her classroom,

the teacher has more of a workload to which he tries to avoid due to the population of

the of the classroom and only having one instruction available for various necessities.

Therefore, such factors can be seen to contribute to more added stress, burn out, and
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low performance on the teacher himself do to trying to do too much in his class.

Although as a student body collectively, the classroom itself is a stakeholder as

students struggle trying to manage different lives but also maintain their grades and

performance with assignments and being contributors in the class. Collectively, the

classroom is hard to manage and suffers and takes advantage of the situation.

Collectively they stress and classroom management is affected. As grades deteriorate,

the school is then affected as a stakeholder since assignments in and out of school

creates low grades that reflect the school to be low performing. Additionally,

stakeholders from the school can be administration staff, principals, tutors, and other

teachers who are affected by low performance and students needing extra help on

academic materials.

 What “stakes” do they have? (What do those individuals/groups stand to gain/lose in

relation to this problem?)

o As briefly mentioned above, some gains and losses had already been mentioned. To

state even more, teachers gain better academic success in small classrooms (Folmer,

2009). But with overcrowding we see the opposite effect of loss in success with

reflection of student grades (Barrett, p. 4, 2013). Also, teachers gain more stress in

classrooms which then the classroom no longer becomes a productive learning

environment and an environment of management. The school loses credibility among

the eyes of the parents and community as it bombards students with demands of

success academically and creates effects of stress among its students with pressures

have them reach such aspirations. Additionally, as the community (as mentioned

above) is used to help students complete their work, they become plagued with stress
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also as they may or may not be able to help the children with their success. The staff

and administration is criticized for having such a teacher among their staffing who

gives this amount of stress to their students therefore impacting such additional help

like for example, YMCA staff, Rec center leaders, church staff, or daycares.

Continuing, we see a massive chain of character judging and image distortion towards

the school when it comes to judging the staff and faculty. The child himself might

gain better knowledge on learning content but mostly if the students are already going

through stress among their lives, they simply gain knowledge on how to cheat better

and find Loopholes to get assignments done instead of learning from them as shown

by a study of students taking in class work home to have completed (“Is homework

bad for kids?”, 2019). So, in all with overcrowded classrooms, Is the teacher really

accomplishing anything in the classroom? Assignments should be done in class,

attention should be given to students, one-on-one interactions should be fruitful. But

instead, negative affects tend to be students in tutoring centers in irregular classroom

hours (after school or before school), creating stress in other places because of such

factors or seeking help from other teachers and staff because of lacking academic

success. Stress is spread all around. The teacher loses student interaction as they are

bombarded with stress and academic discussion cannot be possible in such big

classrooms (Folmer, 2009).

 What role do we typically expect those stakeholders to play in this situation?

o With such situations, we see the role of teachers being almost wardens to having to

stress students to keep up their academic performance but also having to manage

classrooms. Additionally, the victim role is played by the teacher who whine is forced
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to accommodate a ridiculous request of having to accommodate, manage, teach and

assist 40 plus students in class. The teacher is forced into an unmanageable position

where factors are unfair, but they have to work with them. The teachers' attitudes

towards their students turns into warden when they lose patients and have a hard time

managing overcrowded classrooms. The students play a role as victims where

additionally many students face circumstances outside of school that contribute to

their academic performance and inside the classroom. They are judged by not

competing tasks in and outside of school, low grades, not learning the content and

merit expectations. Therefore, almost persecution in the classroom consists of having

to talk to the students about their performance and expressing expectations that

cannot be met. Students are cornered, like the teachers, to manage situations outside

of their control. Parents and the community play a role of victims and rescuers to

which they should not have been with in the first place. Essentially the families and

communities are doing jobs that should not be instructed to do so when such factors

should have been managed in the schools and children should not have been

neglected. Carrying on burdens and stress and helping students reach academic

success outside the classroom should not be a factor of oversized classrooms.

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Work Cited

(2014). Stakeholder Definition in Education. Retrieved 1 December 2019, from

https://www.edglossary.org/stakeholder/

Average Public School Student:Teacher Ratio (2019-20). (2019). Retrieved 1 November 2019,

from https://www.publicschoolreview.com/average-student-teacher-ratio-stats/national-

data

Barrett, N. (2013). Reward or punishment? Class size and teacher quality (1st ed., pp. 1-5).

Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina.

Cowell, A. (2018). The Impact of Budget Cuts. Retrieved 1 December 2019, from

https://repository.asu.edu/attachments/201200/content/Cowell_asu_0010N_17885.pdf

Fanning, M., & Mitchell, Patricia. (1997). The Relationship between Stress in Public School

Elementary Teachers and Conditions in the Classroom, ProQuest Dissertations and

Theses.

Folmer, E. (2010). Class Size Effects on The Number and Types of Student-Teacher Interactions

in Primary Classrooms. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 45(2), 30–38. Retrieved from

https://search-ebscohost-

com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=508420676&site=ehost-

live

Garrett-Hatfield, L. (2019). The Advantages & Disadvantages of Class Sizes. Retrieved 1

December 2019, from https://education.seattlepi.com/advantages-disadvantages-class-

sizes-3194.html
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Probing Question: Is homework bad for kids? | Penn State University. (2019). Retrieved 14

November 2019, from https://news.psu.edu/story/141247/2009/08/31/research/probing-

question-homework-bad-kids

Rodewald, M. (2018). Educators talk about class sizes in Arizona post #RedforED. Retrieved 1

December 2019, from https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/educators-talk-about-class-

sizes-in-arizona-post-redfored

Schwartz, R., Schmitt, M., & Lose, M. (2012). Effects of Teacher-Student Ratio in Response to

Intervention Approaches. The Elementary School Journal, 112(4), 547-567.

What are the Advantages of Small Class Sizes?. (2019). Retrieved 1 December 2019, from

https://www.methodschools.org/blog/what-are-the-advantages-to-schools-with-small-

class-sizes-0