2023-24 draft calendar scenarios to be reviewed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am team February break although I couldn’t actually see that MCPS was considering this anywhere? In any case, where I have seen this implemented, there have been camps set up that week so it may be easier for working parents than other winter days.

Scenario C has a five-day weekend in February around Presidents Day.

Oh, thanks. I missed that because I guess I was looking for M-F that week, which is what I've seen in the past (MA and DC) for February break. Also the week option is usually accommodated by camp options. I can see how this probably pleases no one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love a 2 week winter break. There are many international families in MCPS who would love a 2 week break so they can travel abroad

And they are welcome to do so regardless of the calendar. There is no need for a system wide 2 week break.

Agree! The last thing they should do is throw working families under the bus so a few elites can have their fancy ski vacations in Europe.

DP but I don’t fully get this. The calendar is going to include 180 instructional days. Working families have to cover vacations and I get that it is a real challenge, but I don’t understand how putting the vacation here is more or less challenging?

In the summer, I have more camp options for my kids. In winter, there are fewer places and so fewer choices. In summer, my kids accept that they go to camp weeks we’re not on vacation. During the school year, we cover some random days off by working from home and letting kids hang out. However, not for a week. (I can do it. I have done it. And it’s not ideal.) and kids push back on full week camps during the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love a 2 week winter break. There are many international families in MCPS who would love a 2 week break so they can travel abroad

And they are welcome to do so regardless of the calendar. There is no need for a system wide 2 week break.

Agree! The last thing they should do is throw working families under the bus so a few elites can have their fancy ski vacations in Europe.

DP but I don’t fully get this. The calendar is going to include 180 instructional days. Working families have to cover vacations and I get that it is a real challenge, but I don’t understand how putting the vacation here is more or less challenging?

In the summer, I have more camp options for my kids. In winter, there are fewer places and so fewer choices. In summer, my kids accept that they go to camp weeks we’re not on vacation. During the school year, we cover some random days off by working from home and letting kids hang out. However, not for a week. (I can do it. I have done it. And it’s not ideal.) and kids push back on full week camps during the year.

Thanks for that perspective. My kids are younger (oldest will be in K next year). So it’s illuminating to hear what older kids will push back on but in general I totally get the struggle of what kids will and won’t accept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love a 2 week winter break. There are many international families in MCPS who would love a 2 week break so they can travel abroad

And they are welcome to do so regardless of the calendar. There is no need for a system wide 2 week break.

Agree! The last thing they should do is throw working families under the bus so a few elites can have their fancy ski vacations in Europe.

DP but I don’t fully get this. The calendar is going to include 180 instructional days. Working families have to cover vacations and I get that it is a real challenge, but I don’t understand how putting the vacation here is more or less challenging?

In the summer, I have more camp options for my kids. In winter, there are fewer places and so fewer choices. In summer, my kids accept that they go to camp weeks we’re not on vacation. During the school year, we cover some random days off by working from home and letting kids hang out. However, not for a week. (I can do it. I have done it. And it’s not ideal.) and kids push back on full week camps during the year.

If this stuff becomes permanent then you’ll have more options. Camps fill need and demand. School year creates the need/demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

If they start early, and want to get learning in before Memorial Day, they should not consider extended winter, Thanksgiving, February breaks that eat the new days and cause school to end around June 15 as always.

True, but separately, isn’t there a case to be made for slightly shorter summer vacations? The kids forget so much.

I watched the meeting and the superintendent herself responded to this and said yes, year round school is impactful (innovative calendar at two mcps schools) but moving the start date up one week here or there doesn’t really make any difference from an education standpoint. It’s just a matter of preference over whether ppl would rather start early in order to get a longer winter break type of trade off.

They also talked about how the Maryland Dept of Ed might allow them to add in some extra teacher professional days that count as days because students would complete asynchronous or virtual assignments or activities. I was against this until I found out it was instead of extra early release days. We are getting pretty far into the weeds, but that purple day on Indigenous/Columbus and the other one in the second semester may fall into this category if the state allows this.

Not in favor of this idea; might cause pandemic PTSD in middle schooler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

If they start early, and want to get learning in before Memorial Day, they should not consider extended winter, Thanksgiving, February breaks that eat the new days and cause school to end around June 15 as always.

True, but separately, isn’t there a case to be made for slightly shorter summer vacations? The kids forget so much.

I watched the meeting and the superintendent herself responded to this and said yes, year round school is impactful (innovative calendar at two mcps schools) but moving the start date up one week here or there doesn’t really make any difference from an education standpoint. It’s just a matter of preference over whether ppl would rather start early in order to get a longer winter break type of trade off.

They also talked about how the Maryland Dept of Ed might allow them to add in some extra teacher professional days that count as days because students would complete asynchronous or virtual assignments or activities. I was against this until I found out it was instead of extra early release days. We are getting pretty far into the weeds, but that purple day on Indigenous/Columbus and the other one in the second semester may fall into this category if the state allows this.

Not in favor of this idea; might cause pandemic PTSD in middle schooler.

It’s just a fancy way of saying homework. If kids have homework assigned on the days off, it can be counted as a school day. The HW has to be turned in in the day off electronically, very similar to a regular school day where students submit an assignment in Canvas or create a video in FlipGrid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

That might be true in some classes or schools, but is not true of all.

In my experience, when you shift the dates to avoid an undesired behavior, the behavior just moves to a different date. I’m a dinosaur who had kids in MCPS back when there was school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. People pulled their kids out at noon so MCPS made Wed a half day. Then people started skipping Wednesday all together. Then, we didn’t have school on Wednesday at all so people started pulling their kids out at noon on Tuesday. Now Tuesday is a half day and last year, many people skipped that day altogether.

It would make more sense to require a substantial project or assessment the first week or eight days in June if you want to enforce learning after Memorial Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

That might be true in some classes or schools, but is not true of all.

In my experience, when you shift the dates to avoid an undesired behavior, the behavior just moves to a different date. I’m a dinosaur who had kids in MCPS back when there was school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. People pulled their kids out at noon so MCPS made Wed a half day. Then people started skipping Wednesday all together. Then, we didn’t have school on Wednesday at all so people started pulling their kids out at noon on Tuesday. Now Tuesday is a half day and last year, many people skipped that day altogether.

It would make more sense to require a substantial project or assessment the first week or eight days in June if you want to enforce learning after Memorial Day.

DP. I get your point but I think part of this issue is that statewide and national standardized testing tends to happen in May. It's not every class, but for those that are somewhat test-driven, the curriculum is squeezed in before relevant May dates and there's often little to do afterward.

(I'm new to Maryland and my kids are young if I'm missing anything, but that's my general perception.)

[Anonymous]

Or the calendar options still available somewhere? I don't see them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

If they start early, and want to get learning in before Memorial Day, they should not consider extended winter, Thanksgiving, February breaks that eat the new days and cause school to end around June 15 as always.

True, but separately, isn’t there a case to be made for slightly shorter summer vacations? The kids forget so much.

I am the outlier but I think a 10-11 week break is terrible.

Too long or too short?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

If they start early, and want to get learning in before Memorial Day, they should not consider extended winter, Thanksgiving, February breaks that eat the new days and cause school to end around June 15 as always.

True, but separately, isn’t there a case to be made for slightly shorter summer vacations? The kids forget so much.

I am the outlier but I think a 10-11 week break is terrible.

Too long or too short?

Too long. I prefer the "full year" school model in other countries. Of course, there is still a longer summer/end of school year period but not 2+ months. I don't see the academic benefits to kids to keep them out of school for so long consecutively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or the calendar options still available somewhere? I don't see them.

They're linked to the BoardDocs page for the 10/25 meeting:

http://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CJPTW57555AF

They're supposed to be sending the scenarios (and maybe a 5th one?) out to the community soon for public comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

That might be true in some classes or schools, but is not true of all.

In my experience, when you shift the dates to avoid an undesired behavior, the behavior just moves to a different date. I’m a dinosaur who had kids in MCPS back when there was school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. People pulled their kids out at noon so MCPS made Wed a half day. Then people started skipping Wednesday all together. Then, we didn’t have school on Wednesday at all so people started pulling their kids out at noon on Tuesday. Now Tuesday is a half day and last year, many people skipped that day altogether.

It would make more sense to require a substantial project or assessment the first week or eight days in June if you want to enforce learning after Memorial Day.

DP. I get your point but I think part of this issue is that statewide and national standardized testing tends to happen in May. It's not every class, but for those that are somewhat test-driven, the curriculum is squeezed in before relevant May dates and there's often little to do afterward.

(I'm new to Maryland and my kids are young if I'm missing anything, but that's my general perception.)

For my ES kid last year all the testing was in April, shifting the calendar even earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

That might be true in some classes or schools, but is not true of all.

In my experience, when you shift the dates to avoid an undesired behavior, the behavior just moves to a different date. I’m a dinosaur who had kids in MCPS back when there was school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. People pulled their kids out at noon so MCPS made Wed a half day. Then people started skipping Wednesday all together. Then, we didn’t have school on Wednesday at all so people started pulling their kids out at noon on Tuesday. Now Tuesday is a half day and last year, many people skipped that day altogether.

It would make more sense to require a substantial project or assessment the first week or eight days in June if you want to enforce learning after Memorial Day.

DP. I get your point but I think part of this issue is that statewide and national standardized testing tends to happen in May. It's not every class, but for those that are somewhat test-driven, the curriculum is squeezed in before relevant May dates and there's often little to do afterward.

(I'm new to Maryland and my kids are young if I'm missing anything, but that's my general perception.)

For my ES kid last year all the testing was in April, shifting the calendar even earlier.

Those are the state tests, which should be calibrated to the curriculum covered by the administration date. Folks are talking about AP tests that have certain curriculum that is tested, so if you start later, material has to be taught faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sticking with option D. Also known as basically the calendar we’ve been using.

+1

3/4 scenarios are different and move us away from what we've been doing. It seems like they want to move to an earlier start date. That makes sense to me; no learning happens after Memorial Day, and test scores right now are even more abysmal than normal.

That might be true in some classes or schools, but is not true of all.

In my experience, when you shift the dates to avoid an undesired behavior, the behavior just moves to a different date. I’m a dinosaur who had kids in MCPS back when there was school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. People pulled their kids out at noon so MCPS made Wed a half day. Then people started skipping Wednesday all together. Then, we didn’t have school on Wednesday at all so people started pulling their kids out at noon on Tuesday. Now Tuesday is a half day and last year, many people skipped that day altogether.

It would make more sense to require a substantial project or assessment the first week or eight days in June if you want to enforce learning after Memorial Day.

DP. I get your point but I think part of this issue is that statewide and national standardized testing tends to happen in May. It's not every class, but for those that are somewhat test-driven, the curriculum is squeezed in before relevant May dates and there's often little to do afterward.

(I'm new to Maryland and my kids are young if I'm missing anything, but that's my general perception.)

I am an AP teacher and every year I comment on this. It is an absolute shame that some teachers and parents think it is OK to waste a large proportion of the school year "because the kids and I have worked hard and deserve a break." As if the test itself was the point, instead of learning. Based on the teacher groups that I am in, I would estimate that 75% of AP teachers just show movies after the exam. So sad. All of these classes cover so much ground during the year and force us to rush, so these kids would really benefit from going in-depth on interesting topics. For example, after the exam in my AP US GoPo class, we did Case Studies on property rights/eminent domain; fascism; federalism and the New Deal, and the Patriot Act and NSA Surveillance. We also did a couple of field trips. Parents should push back on this laziness...