Extended calendar next school year at two schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asking because I don't know: What kind of extra help is offered to these families now? I thought there was already free summer school and meals?

Yes, there is free summer school but that is voluntary. Parents who don't value education won't send their kids to anything voluntary. For all the people out there who flip out when someone says FARMS = Poor Performance, MCPS is saying virtually the same thing when they implement this "Extended Calendar". This is just admitting that these kids don't learn as quickly as other kids at other schools. You will definitely see middle class families leaving. Maybe not the Uber-PC supermoms that will surely post "My child is at that school and I love the idea".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asking because I don't know: What kind of extra help is offered to these families now? I thought there was already free summer school and meals?

Based on what our school used to have before it lost Title I status, I think that the existing program only runs 5 weeks, and is only 4 hours a day. It also is not always at a child's home school.

So, it is better than nothing but not as good as what they are now considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asking because I don't know: What kind of extra help is offered to these families now? I thought there was already free summer school and meals?

Yes, there is free summer school but that is voluntary. Parents who don't value education won't send their kids to anything voluntary. For all the people out there who flip out when someone says FARMS = Poor Performance, MCPS is saying virtually the same thing when they implement this "Extended Calendar". This is just admitting that these kids don't learn as quickly as other kids at other schools. You will definitely see middle class families leaving. Maybe not the Uber-PC supermoms that will surely post "My child is at that school and I love the idea".

No, what they are "admitting" is that not every child has access to high quality summer programming and therefore kids learn skills over the summer and therefore teachers lose instructional time at the start of the year.

As a middle class parent, I'm not opposed to this at all. If my kids' peers are getting the same type of enrichment over the summer as they are, which is enrichment we can only provide because of our relative wealth, then everyone benefits, including my children not sitting through a month of review at the start of the school year.

[Anonymous]

Oops, meant to say that "kids LOSE skills over the summer."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm very familiar with randomized controlled trials and other merchanisms to test innovations. MCPS isn't perfect, but their proposal to test a hypothesis in two schools and scale up if successful IS systematic.

Yup. All you posters saying that it's all hopeless and it won't work -- you can rest easy. MCPS will try a pilot, it won't show any positive results, and then MCPS will stop doing it. Problem solved.

On the other hand, maybe it will show some positive results.

Either way, the only way to find out is to try it.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll believe this when I see it. Don't they need a waiver to go past June 15? I bet Hogan won't let them, because he has a stick up his ass about MCPS and MCEA in particular. He'll make some grandstanding pronouncement about how horrible it is to deny kids summer vacation and that MCPS should try helping kids by having less crappy teachers because the union makes it hard to get rid of them, and this is just another attempt by MCPS to erode his executive order, blah blah blah. Just wait.

No. They can and will get a waiver for ‘innovative’ programs to address academic achievement.

Good. This is how the education system should work. Pilot innovations and see what gets results.

Ha! You must be an administrator. Or you work for MCPS.

Education needs small class sizes, caring, well-educated teachers and parents who respect the value of education.

The rest is BS. We don’t need all the BS initiatives that MCPS continuously rolls out. Kindergarten Head Start? Waste of time and money. Chromebooks in every K class? Also a waste of time and money. Any teacher can tell you how much time and money is wasted on stupid initiatives that get rolled out by admin. With little to no positive results.

Wrong. I'm a parent at a high income elementary school in MCPS. No connection to the education field, but I believe in evidence based decision making. I agree with you that small class sizes and well educated professionals are important. Evidence suggests a longer school year can prevent the 'summer slide,' particularly in low income students and I'm glad MCPS is testing this in a systematic way.

Please don't pull answers from the air, PP. There was nothing systematic in the way this mandate was handled.

again - People living in bubbles shouldn't comment on situations that are unfamiliar to them.

I'm very familiar with randomized controlled trials and other merchanisms to test innovations. MCPS isn't perfect, but their proposal to test a hypothesis in two schools and scale up if successful IS systematic.

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

[Anonymous]

How does this work with Gov Hogan's school must be done by June 15 and cannot start again until after Labor Day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

You don't pilot a project w/o first gathering research from those directly involved. funny how the teachers weren't surveyed

nor were the parents . . .

And were the feeder elementary (Nix is pre-K through 2) and middle schools notified? Did they switch their schedules, too? lol! no!

It's a disaster in the making that won't amount to anything beneficial.

band aid . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

You don't pilot a project w/o first gathering research from those directly involved. funny how the teachers weren't surveyed

nor were the parents . . .

And were the feeder elementary (Nix is pre-K through 2) and middle schools notified? Did they switch their schedules, too? lol! no!

It's a disaster in the making that won't amount to anything beneficial.

band aid . . .

If the pilot is starting in the fall, they have plenty of time to do a baseline. And I assume they have plenty of administrative data on the student population that will serve to measure outcomes. But I guess actual data won't matter to you, because you've already decided what the outcome will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

You don't pilot a project w/o first gathering research from those directly involved. funny how the teachers weren't surveyed

nor were the parents . . .

And were the feeder elementary (Nix is pre-K through 2) and middle schools notified? Did they switch their schedules, too? lol! no!

It's a disaster in the making that won't amount to anything beneficial.

band aid . . .

If the pilot is starting in the fall, they have plenty of time to do a baseline. And I assume they have plenty of administrative data on the student population that will serve to measure outcomes. But I guess actual data won't matter to you, because you've already decided what the outcome will be.

After 20 years of this nonsense and no change, hell yeah, I know what the outcome is.

You'd think they'd do longitudinal studies, eh? funny how that's not the case

know why? bc the supts don't STAY long enough -As each new supt enters the spot, it's away with the old; enter the new!

Just stop, PP. You really have no clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

You don't pilot a project w/o first gathering research from those directly involved. funny how the teachers weren't surveyed

nor were the parents . . .

And were the feeder elementary (Nix is pre-K through 2) and middle schools notified? Did they switch their schedules, too? lol! no!

It's a disaster in the making that won't amount to anything beneficial.

band aid . . .

Actually "band aid" gives it too much credit. A band aid is supposed to actually stop the bleeding. This is more like covering the wound with dirt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

You don't pilot a project w/o first gathering research from those directly involved. funny how the teachers weren't surveyed

nor were the parents . . .

And were the feeder elementary (Nix is pre-K through 2) and middle schools notified? Did they switch their schedules, too? lol! no!

It's a disaster in the making that won't amount to anything beneficial.

band aid . . .

Actually "band aid" gives it too much credit. A band aid is supposed to actually stop the bleeding. This is more like covering the wound with dirt.[b]

thus adding to the infection

I like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll believe this when I see it. Don't they need a waiver to go past June 15? I bet Hogan won't let them, because he has a stick up his ass about MCPS and MCEA in particular. He'll make some grandstanding pronouncement about how horrible it is to deny kids summer vacation and that MCPS should try helping kids by having less crappy teachers because the union makes it hard to get rid of them, and this is just another attempt by MCPS to erode his executive order, blah blah blah. Just wait.

No. They can and will get a waiver for ‘innovative’ programs to address academic achievement.

Good. This is how the education system should work. Pilot innovations and see what gets results.

Ha! You must be an administrator. Or you work for MCPS.

Education needs small class sizes, caring, well-educated teachers and parents who respect the value of education.

The rest is BS. We don’t need all the BS initiatives that MCPS continuously rolls out. Kindergarten Head Start? Waste of time and money. Chromebooks in every K class? Also a waste of time and money. Any teacher can tell you how much time and money is wasted on stupid initiatives that get rolled out by admin. With little to no positive results.

Wrong. I'm a parent at a high income elementary school in MCPS. No connection to the education field, but I believe in evidence based decision making. I agree with you that small class sizes and well educated professionals are important. Evidence suggests a longer school year can prevent the 'summer slide,' particularly in low income students and I'm glad MCPS is testing this in a systematic way.

Please don't pull answers from the air, PP. There was nothing systematic in the way this mandate was handled.

again - People living in bubbles shouldn't comment on situations that are unfamiliar to them.

I'm very familiar with randomized controlled trials and other merchanisms to test innovations. MCPS isn't perfect, but their proposal to test a hypothesis in two schools and scale up if successful IS systematic.

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

Are you a 10 year old upset that your school year is going to be longer? Because you write like one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL!

You have no clue! I know exactly how this went down, and there was NOTHING systematic about it.

Take your condescending tone off this thread and stick your head in a journal. You know nothing.

DP. OK. That doesn't mean they won't compare the two schools with it (however unsystematically planned or chosen) with the multiple schools without it. This is a pilot test, no? And MCPS has done pilot tests before.

You don't pilot a project w/o first gathering research from those directly involved. funny how the teachers weren't surveyed

nor were the parents . . .

And were the feeder elementary (Nix is pre-K through 2) and middle schools notified? Did they switch their schedules, too? lol! no!

It's a disaster in the making that won't amount to anything beneficial.

band aid . . .

If the pilot is starting in the fall, they have plenty of time to do a baseline. And I assume they have plenty of administrative data on the student population that will serve to measure outcomes. But I guess actual data won't matter to you, because you've already decided what the outcome will be.

After 20 years of this nonsense and no change, hell yeah, I know what the outcome is.

You'd think they'd do longitudinal studies, eh? funny how that's not the case

know why? bc the supts don't STAY long enough -As each new supt enters the spot, it's away with the old; enter the new!

Just stop, PP. You really have no clue.

We'll all have much more of "a clue" after we see the results of the pilot. Even you!