CORRECTED December 12, 11:24 a.m: Dr. Chimille Tillery was incorrectly attributed as saying classes have grown larger on average while large classes are actually typically outliers. 

Due to class demands in the 2025-2026 school year, 1.3% of classes qualified as large class sizes at New Trier High School. Large classes, which have 30 or more students in one classroom, have increased by 0.7% from the 2020-21 school year. 

Both teachers and students are affected by large classes, as it gives teachers more students to teach, and, as a result, students may not receive much personalized attention.

This year, English teacher Sarah Lahey teaches two Great Books classes, one with 24 students and the other with 25 students. While these do not qualify as large classes, Lahey has experienced the challenges of growing class sizes. 

“In a big crowded classroom, it’s easier [for students] to get distracted and maybe not quite listen to the teacher attentively,” Lahey said.

A New Trier district report from Oct.13 stated that the New Trier administration aims to have 23 students per class. However, the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Chimille Tillery explained that this year, there was a greater demand for certain classes, which resulted in some larger classes. 

According to both Tillery and the Associate Principal for Academic and Administrative Services Dr. Daniel Weidner, department chairs work with administrators in an annual sectioning process to create class sizes and determine where to make cuts regarding the student to teacher ratio per class. 

According to the administration, when there aren’t enough students to create a new class, they are placed in an already relatively full one, thus creating a bigger and larger class size.

 

Teachers in the Modern and Classical Languages department are experiencing growing class sizes with classes such as French 4 and AP Chinese 4 which are exceeding 30 students. French 4 teacher Fanka Dimitrov, for example, teaches two large classes.

“The biggest issue with having more students is timely feedback,” Dimitrov said. “It takes longer to grade with more students.” 

Some students are frustrated with the learning atmosphere in larger classes as well.

“With more students in my class, it is harder to get my questions answered because the teacher is focusing on so many things,” sophomore June Knudson said.

While these patterns are new for most at New Trier, some unique classes, such as Urban Design and Civic Engagement, have specific models that detail larger numbers of students than a typical class.

Weidner stated that the Urban Design and Civic Engagement course was created to have two teachers and a larger class size. However, even without a specified model, some other classes are also larger just to keep up with student demand, and even with the target number of 23 students per classroom, the sectioning process does not always work out perfectly.

Nonetheless, Dimitrov finds that there can be positive aspects to having larger classes in addition to the various obstacles.

“Having a larger class can be a positive because of the energy in the room, and it also can be a negative because not every student can get the personal attention they need,” Dimitrov said.