Let them experience the opportunities

In these tough economic times, it’s hard to believe that a high school board would think it cost effective to have teachers teaching classes multiple times during the day when the number of students signed up for that class could easily be taught in one session. Yet that is just what happens at Ohio High School on a regular basis.

In 2009-10, there were only seven classes out of approximately 50 classes in which the teacher taught 10 or more students in a class, and two of these were physical education classes. There were 21 courses with enrollments of five or fewer students. For example, a geography course was taught twice a day, each time with four students. An algebra class was taught twice a day with a total of 12 students for the day. Even worse, marketing went twice a day with a total of five students.

On the opposite end of the scale there were classes such as Accounting I and II and Spanish III & IV taught at the same time, just like an old fashioned one-room school house.

Those who feel the school should stay open will say, “Our students are so privileged; they get basically one-on-one tutoring.” But why do they need so much one-on-one tutoring in high school? Realistically, a teacher likes to have moderately-sized classes of about 18 students. According to the 2009 School Report Card, OHS teachers average 7.1 students per class. Studies show that when you have extremely small classes, the students do less interacting and are less challenged intellectually. If smallest is best, why did OHS not make AYP in 2009? We pay the highest school taxes in the state and have extremely small classes, yet many who graduate have to take remedial courses in English and math at the local community college.

Go and ask for a copy of the current high school schedule and see exactly what is being taught — not what the curriculum guide says is available — but what is actually being taught. Ask how many students will be in each class.

Yes, Princeton High School has its problems, just as Amboy and Bureau Valley and any other medium-sized school, but their students have opportunities that ours will never have simply because they have a bigger school population; no amount of money in the world is going to change that.