Have you been walking around the halls wondering why it feels so packed? The past few years Rocky has shown a steady increase in student enrollment. This directly correlates to the size of classes and the ability of students to get one on one learning time. Having over 30 students in one class doesn’t help kids learn and doesn’t let teachers take full of advantage of the 90 minutes they get each day with their students.

In 2017, Rocky Mountain High School’s freshman enrollment was 505 students, while in 2018 it was over 600. If you think there are more people in the halls, you’re right. From 2017-2018 the difference in incoming freshmen classes is almost 20%. This has a huge impact on the culture at Rocky and the educational opportunity for all the students. Sophomore Zoe Davies said, “The busses are too packed to get to school, kids don’t have places to sit!” Another sophomore Jack Klussmann said that, “…getting from class to class is too much of a hassle as everyone is packed in so tightly, it’s hard to be on time.”

A recent study by the Center for Public Education (CPE) reveals some shocking research on class sizes. The CPE did this study to find out how many students should be in a class to maximise learning and growth among the student body.

The study used data from 7,000 students from 80 different school districts and concluded that to keep students engaged, there needs to be a student teacher ratio of 18:1. This may seem like a low number, but at Rocky the student to teacher ratio is 20:1.

Although Rocky may be close to the recommended ratio, it becomes irrelevant when there are inconsistencies in class size. This seems to be an occurrence at Rocky as some classes have upwards of 35 students–well above the school ratio–and some are only 15.

However, Rocky Mountain High School’s test scores don’t seem to be affected. In Reading and Mathematics Rocky is above state average. Despite crowded and sometimes uncomfortable conditions, Bo’s continue to succeed.