Lee and Fred are elementary school teachers. Fred works for a charter school in Pacific Palisades, California, where class size reduction is a goal for 2013. Lee works for a noncharter school where funds do not allow for class size reduction policies. Lee’s fifth-grade class has 1.2 times as many students as Fred’s.

Question

a. If there are a total of 55 students, how many students does Fred’s class have? (Round your answers to the nearest whole number. )

b. If there are a total of 55 students, how many students does Lee’s class have? (Round your answers to the nearest whole number. )

I would appreciate some help and learning the formula! I have finals in the morning and I can't seem to solve this!

Answer 1

After cutting through all that unnecessary verbiage ....

"Lee’s fifth-grade class has 1.2 times as many students as Fred’s."

Fred's class-size --- x
Lee's class-size --- 1.2x

Now simply solve:
x + 1.2x = 55

Answer 2

23
32