Florida Department of Education

In the past few years, many people have been concerned about the large class sizes all across Florida schools. When the classes are too large, many times the students do not get the personal attention that they need and it can negatively affect the quality of their education. The FCAT scores across Florida have shown that something needed to be done about the class sizes and the Florida Department of Education is now working to fix this with the class size reduction amendment.

Back in November of 2002, the State Constitution of Florida was amended to limit the number of students that are to be in once classroom. The following are the limits decided upon by the Florida Department of Education that are now to be followed when it comes to class sizes:

Pre-K – 3rd Grade – 18 students per class
4th Grade – 8th Grade – 22 students per class
9th Grade – 12th Grade – 25 students per class

These numbers are the highest that is to be allowed in one classroom. While it is not something that can totally be incorporated all at once, over the next few years schools across Florida are to be working to come up to these new class sizes that have been decided upon by the Florida Department of Education.

While testing has shown that Florida schools are a bit behind in their education, the Florida Department of Education is hoping that this new amendment dealing with class size will help in the future. If the class sizes are smaller, it should make it easier for teachers to teach and for students to learn. Hopefully in the next few years the test scores will begin to rise across Florida as the number of students per class decreases; however, only time will tell how well this new law really works.