no progress on virtual learning plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

Yes far better to be like MCPS and screw over ALL students so that they don’t get the required number of instructional days like the rest of the country and ask for a waiver to the state of Maryland year after year.

Meanwhile schools tell students not to bother coming to the new days in late June because all the teachers will be calling in sick and on vacation.

So no virtual learning because we don’t want to mess with the extra vacation snow days provide MCPS staff right?

This.

So what happens now that there’s another storm coming for Sunday night?
Will McPS still refuse to use the makeup days it built into its calendar? Will BoE arise from their slumber and make McPS follow the plans they submitted?

The National Weather Service has updated their alerts for the storm. These are in effect late Sunday afternoon into Monday morning:

* The Beltway area is now under a Winter Weather Advisory.

* A more significant Winter Storm Warning has been issued for areas west, north, east, and southeast of the Beltway area, where NWS expects heavier snow that could reach or exceed 5 inches.

* Blizzard Warning on the Eastern Shore (yikes!!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I have a kindergartner and both my husband and I have no telework options. During the past snowstorm, our work reopened Wednesday and our younger child's private day care reopened Tuesday. We were still snowed in Wednesday, but sent my kindergartner to the younger child's daycare Thursday and Friday and to school based care on Monday. If any of those days had been virtual, he would have mostly skipped it. The private day care I think would have tried to get him at least dialed in but no way would global have been able to get all the kids into virtual school.

I don't know. Maybe virtual is still the right answer with the understanding that younger kids will get little to nothing out of it. But I would be concerned that if virtual is an option, there would be even less push to reopen schools or use identified makeup days and that is going to hurt younger children.

The school-based child cares can facilitate virtual learning just fine. They did that for a whole year during COVID for elementary school kids whose parents couldn't be home with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

Yes far better to be like MCPS and screw over ALL students so that they don’t get the required number of instructional days like the rest of the country and ask for a waiver to the state of Maryland year after year.

Meanwhile schools tell students not to bother coming to the new days in late June because all the teachers will be calling in sick and on vacation.

So no virtual learning because we don’t want to mess with the extra vacation snow days provide MCPS staff right?

This.

So what happens now that there’s another storm coming for Sunday night?
Will McPS still refuse to use the makeup days it built into its calendar? Will BoE arise from their slumber and make McPS follow the plans they submitted?

The National Weather Service has updated their alerts for the storm. These are in effect late Sunday afternoon into Monday morning:

* The Beltway area is now under a Winter Weather Advisory.

* A more significant Winter Storm Warning has been issued for areas west, north, east, and southeast of the Beltway area, where NWS expects heavier snow that could reach or exceed 5 inches.

* Blizzard Warning on the Eastern Shore (yikes!!)

They will extend the year from Thurs June 25 to Fri June 26... that's a pretty easy one, it would make no sense to do things any differently.

Now if there are two or more snow days that would be a much bigger issue... but this does not at all look like a storm that's likely to close school for multiple days.

[Anonymous]

Anne Arundel county is looking pretty smart having an approved virtual learning plan for snow that they used during the last snow storm, and having built in 3 snow days into the calendar.

MCPS is the stupid Maryland county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

Yes far better to be like MCPS and screw over ALL students so that they don’t get the required number of instructional days like the rest of the country and ask for a waiver to the state of Maryland year after year.

Meanwhile schools tell students not to bother coming to the new days in late June because all the teachers will be calling in sick and on vacation.

So no virtual learning because we don’t want to mess with the extra vacation snow days provide MCPS staff right?

+1 This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

You are presenting us with two plans, but MCPS is doing neither of them. They are neither building in an appropriate number of makeup days nor are they pivoting to virtual like many other large school districts.

The biggest issue with MCPS to my mind is the total failure to plan ahead. They seem to constantly be in reaction mode, and I'm absolutely at a loss as to how all of these folks claim to have PhDs in administration specifically, and yet not a single person in the central office appears capable of sitting down with a Gantt chart and figuring out whose job it is to do what when.

Oh they don't have Ph.D.s. They have Ed.D.s or other education-specific doctorates. Very different.

But yeah, your point stands. They can't do basic tasks. It's embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I have trouble understanding how DCUM is so antiscreens, and yet also wants a plan where we go back to 1:1 devices that travel with kids.

Similarly, I have trouble believing that DCUM is up in arms that school, and school based closings present challenges for working parents, and is now advocating something that would be impossible for many families using group childcare or working from home while supervising to manage.

The costs of virtual days would be high. To say that schools should do it because it might yield a tiny bit of learning, is absurd because it ignores those costs.

I lean towards the anti screens side and also support virtual learning during long snow closures. Just because you ensure that the fraction of kids whose parents don't own computers have a school computer to bring home before a big storm, doesn't at all mean that those kids need to be using computers on a daily basis in the classroom. Totally separate issues.

So tired of people on their high horses acting as if a short period of virtual learning after a huge ice storm will harm their kids. Good grief. Virtual learning in that scenario needs to meet a minimal threshold; it needs to be superior to adding days at the end of the school where a large percentage of the student population will be absent. It meets that requirement. Done!

Equally tired of parents acting like a few snow days will harm their kids.

They are harmful if MCPS continues on this lazy trajectory of not providing 180 days of instruction. Massachusetts schedules 185 days a year so that students will have a minimum of 180. MCPS wants to have fewer instructional days than required because it’s easier for staff.

If we scheduled 185 days of school, then most years we would have more than 180 days. Is that what people want??

When I started in the system, they scheduled 185 and there in only one year when we didn't use them all, and it was just 1 we went over by. I would not have had a problem just ending the school year a day early that year. But MCPS closes so easily that 185 is typically what they would need. More in an especially snowy year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anne Arundel county is looking pretty smart having an approved virtual learning plan for snow that they used during the last snow storm, and having built in 3 snow days into the calendar.

MCPS is the stupid Maryland county.

Baltimore County too- but apparently special needs and equity concerns only exist in mcps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anne Arundel county is looking pretty smart having an approved virtual learning plan for snow that they used during the last snow storm, and having built in 3 snow days into the calendar.

MCPS is the stupid Maryland county.

Baltimore County too- but apparently special needs and equity concerns only exist in mcps

Spare us your ignorant virtue signaling. NYC. And many districts in Long Island and New York State. And Boston and thousands of school districts around the country use virtual learning for weather emergencies.

If you look at the MSDE form, there's a requirement that MCPS submit the virtual learning plan form with an extensive section on accomodations for kids with IEPs. But yes, some less professional MCPS staffers prefer having more days off and preferring that MCPS kids get no education at all and try to ask Maryland for a waiver on the 180 days of required instruction so all MCPS kids can learn less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't get the opposition to virtual school for snow days given the alternative is a bunch of half days in late June after exams/APS where it is fully known there is no learning happening. even if it's not perfect it seems far more likely to result in learning

(and i'm a psychologist and saw a high number of kids who thrived in virtual school-- and plenty who struggled and parents often discovering kids ADHD when watching them learn from home )

+1. These people who claim to speak for “all parents” and say that virtual school failed everyone must not be very familiar with modern education. It certainly wasn’t ideal in all circumstances, but for kids older than grade 4, it’s fine. And if all kids don’t show up perfectly ready to learn online, let’s not forget the MCPS has a high degree of in-person absenteeism as well.

Sometimes you have to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But I guess complaining about everything is a good excuse for McPS to do nothing even as the rest of the country adopts these plans to be prepared for emergencies.

And for kids below grade 4? What about them? And what about kids with special needs? They don't matter?

Gee. I guess that NYC with its student body of 1 million, and Boston and Anne Arundel and Alexandria and Baltimore must not have any kids with IEPs or kids under grade 4 since they managed to figure out a virtual learning plan.

Your ignorance isn’t cute. Other school districts make it work. Happy to contribute to a go fund me so that McPS staff can buy a bus ticket to some of these other cities to see how the other school districts do it.

Some schools "make it work" by screwing over a large portion of students.

Many other schools choose not to do that, instead incorporating an appropriate number of days to their calendars from the start while also implementing make-up days. That's the better option for more students. But that's not your concern- you just don't want your vacation plans interrupted.

Yes far better to be like MCPS and screw over ALL students so that they don’t get the required number of instructional days like the rest of the country and ask for a waiver to the state of Maryland year after year.

Meanwhile schools tell students not to bother coming to the new days in late June because all the teachers will be calling in sick and on vacation.

So no virtual learning because we don’t want to mess with the extra vacation snow days provide MCPS staff right?

+1 This.

+2

[Anonymous]

The easiest thing to do would be to have a 185 day school year. This set up with one day and taken make up days they will never use in the spring is not tenable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The easiest thing to do would be to have a 185 day school year. This set up with one day and taken make up days they will never use in the spring is not tenable.

This is what Massachusetts does. And not coincidentally, it has some of the highest educational outcomes in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The easiest thing to do would be to have a 185 day school year. This set up with one day and taken make up days they will never use in the spring is not tenable.

Yup. Let’s start one week earlier in August like FCPS does. Then these snow days will not be so stressful and chaotic for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anne Arundel county is looking pretty smart having an approved virtual learning plan for snow that they used during the last snow storm, and having built in 3 snow days into the calendar.

MCPS is the stupid Maryland county.

Baltimore County too- but apparently special needs and equity concerns only exist in mcps

Spare us your ignorant virtue signaling. NYC. And many districts in Long Island and New York State. And Boston and thousands of school districts around the country use virtual learning for weather emergencies.

If you look at the MSDE form, there's a requirement that MCPS submit the virtual learning plan form with an extensive section on accomodations for kids with IEPs. But yes, some less professional MCPS staffers prefer having more days off and preferring that MCPS kids get no education at all and try to ask Maryland for a waiver on the 180 days of required instruction so all MCPS kids can learn less.

sorry my sarcasm wasn't apparent-- i assume equity and special needs exists in nyc and baltimore county. and think switching to hours instead of days will shortchange our kids education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anne Arundel county is looking pretty smart having an approved virtual learning plan for snow that they used during the last snow storm, and having built in 3 snow days into the calendar.

MCPS is the stupid Maryland county.

Baltimore County too- but apparently special needs and equity concerns only exist in mcps

Spare us your ignorant virtue signaling. NYC. And many districts in Long Island and New York State. And Boston and thousands of school districts around the country use virtual learning for weather emergencies.

If you look at the MSDE form, there's a requirement that MCPS submit the virtual learning plan form with an extensive section on accomodations for kids with IEPs. But yes, some less professional MCPS staffers prefer having more days off and preferring that MCPS kids get no education at all and try to ask Maryland for a waiver on the 180 days of required instruction so all MCPS kids can learn less.

sorry my sarcasm wasn't apparent-- i assume equity and special needs exists in nyc and baltimore county. and think switching to hours instead of days will shortchange our kids education.

It’s better to get some education than no education. Paras can be online and they can do services online.