A Closer Look at Class Sizes in Milwaukee Public Schools
In a bustling classroom at Rogers Street Academy during the spring, 24 kindergarteners were remarkably focused on their tasks. Teacher Araceli Barroso was closely observing two students as they practiced the different sounds the letter J can make. Her attention was on both of their faces, ensuring they were keeping up with the lesson. At another table, four students read aloud from the same book with teacher Jennifer Rivera Cedeno nearby, making sure they were pointing to the correct words.
At six other tables, students worked independently on writing exercises and then switched tasks. With two teachers and a combined class of 25 students, Barroso and Rivera Cedeno had a significantly lower student-teacher ratio than most Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) classrooms. This reduced ratio allows for more individualized attention, which is known to lead to higher test scores, better attendance, fewer behavioral issues, and stronger relationships that support better mental health.
Despite longstanding goals to reduce class sizes, including the use of voter-approved referendum funding, the district still operates under a class size policy from 1995. Leaders have not been able to recall any time when the district has reported on current class sizes. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis found that MPS class sizes frequently exceed the guidelines from that 1995 policy. As of May, about a third of elementary school classrooms had more students than were supposed to be assigned per teacher: 25 for kindergarten and first grade, and 27 for grades 2-5. In over 100 elementary school classrooms, teachers had more than 30 students on their rosters, leading to less teacher attention and more challenges for staff.
Some teachers have said the issue caused them to leave the district. As the district struggles to fill vacant teaching positions, and aims to improve test scores with under 15% of students scoring as proficient in reading and math, managing class sizes could be a key lever for success.
Measuring Class Sizes
First, the district needs to measure class sizes. This is something the district’s new superintendent, Brenda Cassellius, is familiar with from working in other districts, where she faced the threat of fines for exceeding class size caps. “I've always managed class sizes wherever I've been, and it doesn't appear that there's a hard and fast rule in Milwaukee just yet,” Cassellius said. “But now I'm here. We are definitely going to be looking at our class sizes.”
Unlike some states, Wisconsin does not have laws capping class sizes for most schools. Many districts set and monitor their own class size goals. The Madison Metropolitan School District is one such example, producing twice-annual public reports that show average class sizes by grade and subject area. To examine class sizes at MPS, the Journal Sentinel requested roster tallies for every course, similar to the data used for Madison’s reports.
MPS officials raised concerns about publishing the data, noting that rosters do not always represent class sizes. The Journal Sentinel excluded outliers and charter and Montessori schools, narrowing the analysis to about 4,300 classrooms at 100 traditional MPS schools. The findings revealed that about half of the district’s traditional elementary schools had average roster sizes that exceeded the student-teacher ratio guidelines for at least one age group.
Impact of Class Sizes on Students and Teachers
Hundreds of MPS parents have called for smaller class sizes. A 2023 survey of over 4,000 MPS parents and guardians found that class size reduction was the most popular idea to improve elementary and middle schools, ranking above safety, academic rigor, tutoring, and technology. For high school parents, it was the second most popular behind safety.
While it's difficult for researchers to isolate the impacts of class sizes on students, studies have shown that students in smaller classes tend to perform better. A landmark Tennessee study in the 1980s found that children in classrooms of 13 to 17 students continued performing better than their peers in subsequent years. The gains were especially notable for minority students in the first two years.
Class sizes also affect teacher retention. A 2015 evaluation of the SAGE program found that about 95% of responding schools said it was effective in recruiting and retaining teachers. On the flip side, large classes can cause staff to leave. A Journal Sentinel analysis found that about 17% of 423 teachers who left MPS cited workload as a key factor. Nineteen teachers wrote in comments that they would have stayed if they had smaller class sizes.
Addressing Imbalanced Enrollment
The range of class sizes at MPS appears to be related to a core problem in the district: some schools are in high demand while others, specifically those in Black neighborhoods that haven’t been equitably resourced, struggle to recruit students. While every school board member’s district had a wide range of roster sizes, under-enrolled schools in predominantly Black northside districts tended to have lower class sizes.
Enrollment has become significantly imbalanced. While MPS’ enrollment overall fills about 80% of its building capacity, it’s uneven. About a quarter of schools enrolled more students than their reported building capacity in 2023, while about a quarter were using less than half of their building capacity. Most of the low-enrolled schools are on the north side.
At schools operating over capacity, average elementary roster sizes were about three students larger than schools that are using less than half of their building capacity. Many staff and families have raised this issue. On a district survey to inform its facilities plan, some called for enrollment caps on high-demand schools, and others advocated for investments in other schools to make them more desirable.
Looking Ahead
School board member Erika Siemsen, who drafted a class size reduction plan that got tabled in 2020, is reviving her efforts this year. She is working with Perkins Eastman, a consulting firm hired to help MPS design a long-term facilities plan. “What is the best way to alleviate some of the stress on those schools that are over-enrolled, potentially then lowering those class sizes, and shifting some of that to an underutilized school?” Siemsen asked.
School board president Missy Zombor agreed the district’s imbalanced enrollment is a problem. “I don’t think it’s OK for students to be in schools that are over capacity at the rates they are. It’s really hard on students. It’s really hard on our staff and teachers to have classroom rosters that are larger than they should be. I think we need to be really intentional and try to distribute our resources more equitably across the district.”
While the district doesn’t plan to implement a new class size policy or facilities plan before 2026, some changes could come earlier under the district’s new superintendent, Brenda Cassellius. She has told her team not to allow more students into classrooms that are full under the district’s class size policy. That won’t impact students already enrolled, but could affect new and transferring students.
“I’m not going to tolerate overages,” she said. “I do not want to have class sizes over what they’re supposed to be.” In the longer term, Cassellius said the district needs to change the long-standing pattern in Milwaukee of students busing far from home and over-crowding select schools. Families in every neighborhood should be able to find the programs they want close to home, she said.
While new enrollment patterns could help stabilize some class sizes, MPS data showed high rosters in some under-enrolled schools too. Administrators cited budget constraints and difficulty hiring teachers. If class sizes continue to quietly balloon past district guidelines, the district could lose more teachers.