Class Sizes

It’s a proven fact that that smaller class sizes help improve learning rates. Teachers have more time with each student, allowing them to provide more personalized instruction. The California Teachers Association advocates for smaller class sizes, with their recommended maximum student guidelines for elementary schools being twenty (20) students per teacher.

Table of Contents

Class Sizes and Funding

California Education Code (EC) sections 41376 and 41378 prescribe the maximum class sizes and penalties for districts with any classes that exceed the limits established in 1964:

• Grades 1-3: average class size not to exceed 30 students; no class larger than 32 students.
• Grades 4-8: average number of students per teacher not to exceed the greater of 29.9 (the statewide average number of students per teacher in 1964) or the district’s average number of students per teacher in 1964.

For each student over the limit the district loses funding:

In short, this means that the penalty for exceeding the limit is a loss in all revenue limit funding for each student over the limit.

Why Are Classes So Large?

Smaller classes means more teachers. More teachers mean a larger share of the budget needs to go to salaries. Our board majority is wasting millions of dollars on their personal goals that could be used for hiring teachers, making our class sizes smaller and providing our students with more one-on-one learning time.

Take a look at how your taxpayer dollars are being spent - should we change our priorities and hire more teachers?

Rocklin USD Elementary Class Size Highlights

All data in the table below is taken from the California School Accountability Report Cards available on the Rocklin USD website. It covers elementary schools only.

These are a some of the average class sizes from the last few school years, which means some classrooms had more kids. Further review shows in 2022 Rocklin had 6 elementary classrooms with more than 33 students; in 2021 there were 10 classes with more than 33 students. In both 2021 and 2022 Rocklin USD had a kindergarten class with more than 33 students.

Without the school board majority wasting money on their personal, political, and religious agendas, we could have hired 10 teachers at the mid-range (not starting) salary here in Rocklin USD. This would have both brought Rocklin in line with California classroom size guidelines and increased funding from the state.