Student-teacher ratio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Student-Teacher ratio refers to the number of teachers in a school/university with respect to the number of students who attend the school/university. For example, a student teacher ratio of 10:1 means that there are 10 students for every teacher available. The term can also be reversed to be teacher-student ratio.
A low student-teacher ratio (i.e., each teacher being responsible for only a few students) is often used as a selling point to those choosing schools. A high student-teacher ratio is often cited in criticizing a school or school system, or as evidence of the need for legislative or other systemic changes.
In the United States, some states have created legislation mandating a maximum student-teacher ratio for specific grade levels, particularly kindergarten. When such figures are stated for schools, they often represent averages (means) and thus are vulnerable to skewing; in theory, if one classroom has a 30:1 ratio and the other has a 10:1 ratio, the school could claim to have a 20:1 ratio overall.