2023-24 draft calendar scenarios to be reviewed

[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.)

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...

That's true and fair and you're right that there's much more to the class than the test. Still, if students care about their test results, they are at a disadvantage in a district with several weeks after the test (relative to students who start earlier in August and have more instructional days prior to the test).

[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.)

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

[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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

So we’re going to plan an entire school system’s calendar around AP exams, that zero K-8 students take, only some HS students take, and the scores don’t earn them college credit anyway? We’re going to eliminate a week of summer in August so Larlo satisfies a few college prerequisites? That doesn’t seem like a compelling reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

So we’re going to plan an entire school system’s calendar around AP exams, that zero K-8 students take, only some HS students take, and the scores don’t earn them college credit anyway? We’re going to eliminate a week of summer in August so Larlo satisfies a few college prerequisites? That doesn’t seem like a compelling reason.

Don’t worry, Larlo can have his extra week of summer at the end of the school year. Ocean City will still be there in June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

So we’re going to plan an entire school system’s calendar around AP exams, that zero K-8 students take, only some HS students take, and the scores don’t earn them college credit anyway? We’re going to eliminate a week of summer in August so Larlo satisfies a few college prerequisites? That doesn’t seem like a compelling reason.

Don’t worry, Larlo can have his extra week of summer at the end of the school year. Ocean City will still be there in June.

Not if MCPS inserts a dumb entire week off for Thanksgiving. Also, pretty sure staff do not want to start pre-service a week early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

So we’re going to plan an entire school system’s calendar around AP exams, that zero K-8 students take, only some HS students take, and the scores don’t earn them college credit anyway? We’re going to eliminate a week of summer in August so Larlo satisfies a few college prerequisites? That doesn’t seem like a compelling reason.

Don’t worry, Larlo can have his extra week of summer at the end of the school year. Ocean City will still be there in June.

Not if MCPS inserts a dumb entire week off for Thanksgiving. Also, pretty sure staff do not want to start pre-service a week early.

And good luck getting anyone to teach summer school if you only have a week or two between then and pre-service. Just saying. I don’t think AP exams are that important to that many people that they should supersede other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

So we’re going to plan an entire school system’s calendar around AP exams, that zero K-8 students take, only some HS students take, and the scores don’t earn them college credit anyway? We’re going to eliminate a week of summer in August so Larlo satisfies a few college prerequisites? That doesn’t seem like a compelling reason.

Don’t worry, Larlo can have his extra week of summer at the end of the school year. Ocean City will still be there in June.

Not if MCPS inserts a dumb entire week off for Thanksgiving. Also, pretty sure staff do not want to start pre-service a week early.

That matters for the teachers who have to work summers and do camps, lawn care, lifeguard, or bartend at resorts. Once I stopped working summers, I didn’t care when preservice was because honestly, I had some useless MCPS training at least one day of six weeks out of the eight anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

What about teachers needing to take their recertification courses in the summer?

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...

I agree with you but also see that there are really mental health effects to cramming a 9-10 month class into 8 months, and kids need a little break after that—so yes to interesting discussions but no to massive writing assignments or a ton of outside reading/homework. My kid is also going to try to do some college visits after APs—she refuses to take jay days off until after the exams, and also will be studying through winter and spring break. It really is a grind trying to get ready for all those tests in may — I think she has 5. As a teacher, you might not see what this looks from the perspective of sleep/relaxation/socialization, but it is really tough on the students to cram that material into an abbreviated period.

Trust me, as a teacher of AP exams for 15 years and the mother of four who each entered college with 30-40 credits, I understand what is involved. Your child's "break" will be three months long; they just have to wait a few more weeks. If you are concerned about her mental health, perhaps she shouldn't take five exams in one year.

Alas, many colleges don't give APs credit any more. They just use them for prereqs.

So we’re going to plan an entire school system’s calendar around AP exams, that zero K-8 students take, only some HS students take, and the scores don’t earn them college credit anyway? We’re going to eliminate a week of summer in August so Larlo satisfies a few college prerequisites? That doesn’t seem like a compelling reason.

Don’t worry, Larlo can have his extra week of summer at the end of the school year. Ocean City will still be there in June.

Not if MCPS inserts a dumb entire week off for Thanksgiving. Also, pretty sure staff do not want to start pre-service a week early.

That matters for the teachers who have to work summers and do camps, lawn care, lifeguard, or bartend at resorts. Once I stopped working summers, I didn’t care when preservice was because honestly, I had some useless MCPS training at least one day of six weeks out of the eight anyway.

[Anonymous]

I’m team start 8/28.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m team start 8/28.

Me, too!

[Anonymous]

Heads up: the new survey on the revised options is linked in the Things to Know message that came out today:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/community/school-year-2022-2023/Community-Update-20221103.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Heads up: the new survey on the revised options is linked in the Things to Know message that came out today:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/community/school-year-2022-2023/Community-Update-20221103.html

Thanks for the heads up!

[Anonymous]

They have option D ending on Tuesday June 18th now. I think that's too late. June 14th should be the last day.