DCPS Survey - Increase Instructional Time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This goes to the key problem DCPS has - apples and oranges kids and schools. At our high performing JKLM, there is no way in hell that an extended school year would accomplish anything except burn out the teachers and make the kids hate school. As it is, curriculum at our school essentially ends by Memorial Day, and the rest of the year is mostly spent on field trips, assemblies and field days.

But on the other side of the coin, there are schools in DCPS full of kids that need meals, guidance and support, and enrichment, all of which more school days can accomplish (assuming staff and programming were well-chosen).

Personally, this would push us further towards the move to VA/MD decision . . .

Why not just offer free educational camps for kids below a certain income level? I imagine that teachers in schools with troubled kids would get even more burnt out by a longer school year than those in JKLM.

[Anonymous]

This is just political. Forget about improved academic outcome assessment and evidence-based decisions.
The longer school year will be announced 6 months before the Mayoral election and will boost Bowser's popularity among her voters and constituency of parents willing to have free and hassle free daycare.

JKLM parents did not vote for her in the first place and are not her electoral target.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this thread. It changed my perspective. Particularly useful to hear from teachers and parents of older students. Thanks DCUM!

[Anonymous]

I'm not a JKLM parent. I didn't vote for Bowser. I am totally against this proposal. If they decide to do this we will have to move out of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Not a teacher and I think its a terrible idea.

Not a teacher.

[Anonymous]

I'm literally feeling ill over this proposal, and all the parents jumping on the free daycare option without any thought to what's appropriate.

The costs alone of this proposal mean that if adopted, it'll be shitty.

I want my kids relaxing and doing fun, educational things in the summer and after school. I recognize I have the resources to provide that (and I've adjusted my career to provide it too). I also recognize that DCPS is at least two separate districts, roughly east of the park and west of the park. Provide extra support for kids that need it - beef up aftercare and summer school and PROVE that you can provide high quality other options. Otherwise, you will drive high achieving kids like mine directly into charters and/or privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm literally feeling ill over this proposal, and all the parents jumping on the free daycare option without any thought to what's appropriate.

The costs alone of this proposal mean that if adopted, it'll be shitty.

I want my kids relaxing and doing fun, educational things in the summer and after school. I recognize I have the resources to provide that (and I've adjusted my career to provide it too). I also recognize that DCPS is at least two separate districts, roughly east of the park and west of the park. Provide extra support for kids that need it - beef up aftercare and summer school and PROVE that you can provide high quality other options. Otherwise, you will drive high achieving kids like mine directly into charters and/or privates.

Believe it or not the people without high income ALSO want their children to have a summer break. Summer school is currently optional and some parents choose not to use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need a longer school year. DCPS needs to stop having 4 day weeks. 1/2 day for records keeping? An entire day off for parent-teacher conferences that are 15 minutes long and don't start before 8am or occur after 5pm? I think there was only one full week of instruction in the month of October.

you don't have a clue...elementary school is 15 min/24+ kids=6+ hrs of nonstop talking by teachers, but by middle or high school you're looking at 5-10 minutes per conference, and still not meeting all the parents who want to meet with you
As a parent of a high-schooler, I have had to target the 3 most important teachers and skip the rest, and trying to coordinate conferences for multiple kids in different buildings is nigh impossible
I think having training at the start of the year would be a good thing, however

[Anonymous]

If we're talking about 20 additional days, I don't see how it is a big deal for families. Your children will still get a considerable summer break to wind down or take summer enrichment classes. I would prefer a longer year if that is going to allow for increased recess time and lunch time. As it is, my DS who is a slow eater, only gets 20 minutes to eat lunch. I always worry that he's not getting enough time to eat. And recess time is reduced down so much now that it's a joke. When I was a kid, we had two 30 minute recesses and an hour for lunch. That is unheard of now. For older kids too, they don't get enough breaks in between classes. It is a lot to go from class to class to class with hardly any breaks and try to concentrate and make it through the day. Because I'm not a teacher, I don't know what they must go through, but I can see teacher burn out as an issue, but again, it's only 20 additional days. There are so many non-instructional days peppered in throughout the year, the day off really stack up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we're talking about 20 additional days, I don't see how it is a big deal for families. Your children will still get a considerable summer break to wind down or take summer enrichment classes. I would prefer a longer year if that is going to allow for increased recess time and lunch time. As it is, my DS who is a slow eater, only gets 20 minutes to eat lunch. I always worry that he's not getting enough time to eat. And recess time is reduced down so much now that it's a joke. When I was a kid, we had two 30 minute recesses and an hour for lunch. That is unheard of now. For older kids too, they don't get enough breaks in between classes. It is a lot to go from class to class to class with hardly any breaks and try to concentrate and make it through the day. Because I'm not a teacher, I don't know what they must go through, but I can see teacher burn out as an issue, but again, it's only 20 additional days. There are so many non-instructional days peppered in throughout the year, the day off really stack up.

I'm not a teacher, but I think "just 20 days" is actually quite a lot, both for kids and teachers. That's 4 whole weeks of school. It makes more sense to leave things as they are and offer quality summer programs for at risk kids. It would be unfortunate to do anything that would cause DCPS to lose teachers and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we're talking about 20 additional days, I don't see how it is a big deal for families. Your children will still get a considerable summer break to wind down or take summer enrichment classes. I would prefer a longer year if that is going to allow for increased recess time and lunch time. As it is, my DS who is a slow eater, only gets 20 minutes to eat lunch. I always worry that he's not getting enough time to eat. And recess time is reduced down so much now that it's a joke. When I was a kid, we had two 30 minute recesses and an hour for lunch. That is unheard of now. For older kids too, they don't get enough breaks in between classes. It is a lot to go from class to class to class with hardly any breaks and try to concentrate and make it through the day. Because I'm not a teacher, I don't know what they must go through, but I can see teacher burn out as an issue, but again, it's only 20 additional days. There are so many non-instructional days peppered in throughout the year, the day off really stack up.

I'm not a teacher, but I think "just 20 days" is actually quite a lot, both for kids and teachers. That's 4 whole weeks of school. It makes more sense to leave things as they are and offer quality summer programs for at risk kids. It would be unfortunate to do anything that would cause DCPS to lose teachers and families.

EXACTLY. 20 extra days is 4 weeks. DCPS has a 9 week summer break, 2 weeks in December, and a week in April. 5 weeks in the summer is not a sufficient break (with no other break time).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we're talking about 20 additional days, I don't see how it is a big deal for families. Your children will still get a considerable summer break to wind down or take summer enrichment classes. I would prefer a longer year if that is going to allow for increased recess time and lunch time. As it is, my DS who is a slow eater, only gets 20 minutes to eat lunch. I always worry that he's not getting enough time to eat. And recess time is reduced down so much now that it's a joke. When I was a kid, we had two 30 minute recesses and an hour for lunch. That is unheard of now. For older kids too, they don't get enough breaks in between classes. It is a lot to go from class to class to class with hardly any breaks and try to concentrate and make it through the day. Because I'm not a teacher, I don't know what they must go through, but I can see teacher burn out as an issue, but again, it's only 20 additional days. There are so many non-instructional days peppered in throughout the year, the day off really stack up.

I'm not a teacher, but I think "just 20 days" is actually quite a lot, both for kids and teachers. That's 4 whole weeks of school. It makes more sense to leave things as they are and offer quality summer programs for at risk kids. It would be unfortunate to do anything that would cause DCPS to lose teachers and families.

Yes!!!

[Anonymous]

20 days or 4 weeks still doesn't seem like a lot to me. There is still an entire month off during the summer! Maybe I'm in the minority and totally respect that other people have different opinions, but I would rather have my child get more breaks throughout the day and a longer lunch, rather than have tons of time off at the end. I know when I was a kid, after the first few weeks, the summer break became unbearably long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20 days or 4 weeks still doesn't seem like a lot to me. There is still an entire month off during the summer! Maybe I'm in the minority and totally respect that other people have different opinions, but I would rather have my child get more breaks throughout the day and a longer lunch, rather than have tons of time off at the end. I know when I was a kid, after the first few weeks, the summer break became unbearably long.

Nothing I have seen from Kaya Henderson's interviews where she's talked about wanting to extend the school year suggest that the 20 days/4 weeks would come with more breaks and longer lunch.

[Anonymous]

I spoke with someone who was at the recent LSAT budget meetings. She said DCPS pulled their usual thing which was to group clusters of schools, and not allow conversation/discussion across groups, so it was difficult to tell how the majority felt.

This person also told me she felt it was a done deal (to which I still respond - who is going to pay for this). Thinks the idea is 4 longer days, and half day Wednesdays, like many charters do.