Reduced schedule in HS within MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever pursued a part-time highschool schedule? We are in MCPS and I know there is a form for it.

We are thinking about reducing the full course load and taking math over summers.

Any personal experience with this for your student? Advice from HS personnel? Our kiddo needs a reduced workload.

[Anonymous]

Taking math over the summers sounds brutal unless a kid is a math whiz. They teach a 10 week class in 3.

There is extra time built into the schedule that allows you to get in all required courses and take less than a full time load. It’s how kids are able to fit in travel time to get to special programs such as Vo Tech.

[Anonymous]

NP here and I just had the same conversation with my 8th grader. We are wondering if DC could somehow do math over the summer (weakest subject, needs LOTS of help) and thereby make the school years easier.

Condensing 10 weeks into 3 doesn't sound good, but if it's a lot of hours every day maybe it is doable?

[Anonymous]

Don’t do math over the summer if it’s the weakest - you want to keep that during the year when the pace is slower, and there is a resource class, and the teacher can help. The summer school teacher can’t do much in that format.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here and I just had the same conversation with my 8th grader. We are wondering if DC could somehow do math over the summer (weakest subject, needs LOTS of help) and thereby make the school years easier.

Condensing 10 weeks into 3 doesn't sound good, but if it's a lot of hours every day maybe it is doable?

Class is like 3 hours. I have two kids who had to do English for credit recovery. In addition to the 3 hours of class, there was like 6 hours per day of homework and I had to sit with them. Those were the worst summers of my entire life. Would never have chosen summer school but when it’s credit recovery, it’s either that or potentially not graduating on time.

[Anonymous]

This is possible. At our school they have the equivalent of a study hall (separate from resource) which can be used for at least one period. The rule at our school is you must leave school property if you don’t have a class during a period, so you’d need to make sure you didn’t have any gaps in the schedule or you elect to take the study hall class during the free period so you can stay on campus.

[Anonymous]

Also I agree, math over the summer seems hard, especially virtually via MCPS. I’d want my kid to be very math confident before I considered that approach.

[Anonymous]

What about taking care of electives over the summer? It would still reduce the load in the school year. Many kids do it for extra classes but you do not have to.

[Anonymous]

More sense to do healthE over the summer..
0r invest in a math tutor to get them through and take the most basic class for the credit you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here and I just had the same conversation with my 8th grader. We are wondering if DC could somehow do math over the summer (weakest subject, needs LOTS of help) and thereby make the school years easier.

Condensing 10 weeks into 3 doesn't sound good, but if it's a lot of hours every day maybe it is doable?

Speaking as the parent of a kid who struggles in math, more hours per day wouldn't help my child at all. My kid needs a manageable amount of content followed by some time for their brain to digest the information, practice the skills, etc.

More hours would just be more content and more frustration, leading to less practice and less mastery.

[Anonymous]

My child is strong in math and has taken summer classes outside MCPS for prep and they were very difficult classes as you are compressing a full school year into a few weeks. Like others say, do the resource classes and maybe health ed over the summer. Health Ed over the summer is really hard too as there are 3-5 big assignments a day so your child has to be very focused and stay on top of it. Take the advice and get tutors. Start with getting the core classes over with.

[Anonymous]

You can also take more than 4 years to graduate. You can stay in school, receiving services, until they turn 21 or get their high school diploma, whichever comes first.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who asked about doing math during the summer. Thanks, everyone, for pointing out the error in my thinking. Will scratch that idea. It makes sense that doing Health A and B over the summer would be a good way to reduce the homework load. Will look into that for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who asked about doing math during the summer. Thanks, everyone, for pointing out the error in my thinking. Will scratch that idea. It makes sense that doing Health A and B over the summer would be a good way to reduce the homework load. Will look into that for sure.

To reduce the homework load, have the child take all regular classes (or honors if that is all they offer). AP has more homework/tests but regular/honors classes do not and its teacher specific. Health Ed is good to take over the summer if they want more electives. Otherwise don't do it in the summer as it is a ton of work or you have to be prepared to help a lot. The class/homework load is significant.

Have them sign up for a resource class and reach out now to the HS counselor and see if they will help you come up with a 4 year plan. Some will, some will not. Do PE if they like sports freshman year as a break - easy A - some schools have yoga, weightlifting and other non-ball sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More sense to do healthE over the summer..
0r invest in a math tutor to get them through and take the most basic class for the credit you can.

To follow up on this, I worry about how my DC is going to make it through the 4 years of math instruction in HS. DC has been doing weekly math tutoring since 2nd grade, with a C average in classes.

It looks like the path will be:

9th - Algebra 1A/B (with "Related Math" added for extra support?)
10th - Geometry A/B
11th - Bridge to Algebra 2
12th - Algebra 2A/B

is this the most basic path or is there something easier?