Moving AP testing for an O Day

[Anonymous]

Forget book banning, THIS is what the SB needs to actually focus on fixing NOW. They screwed up with the O days, they need to change this back for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forget book banning, THIS is what the SB needs to actually focus on fixing NOW. They screwed up with the O days, they need to change this back for kids.

They won't fix it.

There was some sort of committee with all sorts of groups represented that came up with some good recommendations for a calendar based of stats of the various groups represented at fcps.

The school board tossed out the recommendations and came up with this mess.

It took months of school board meetings to debate it.

Those five minutes spent on the porno books wouldn't make a dent in the time that it took for the school board to create this calendar. It will take a year of meetings to fix it, or make it worse knowing this school board.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand by this has no traction. Why are parents okay with HS aged kids getting no instruction for *11* instructional days? And now moving APs? Makeup days exist for things like Muslims observing Eid. No religion should be dictating whether kids take major national exams. Let alone 8 different religions.

I don’t get the outrage at two books in the library, while thousands of kids aren’t being allowed to take APs with the rest of the nation. This is what the WaPo should focus on.

Of course late testing means different tests than everyone else. Which means scores will be late.

I hate this so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the real problem is College Board scheduling AP exams on days of religious observance. They could have scheduled around it but instead decided to give the middle finger to observant Muslims.

If it was an exam scheduled for Easter lots of people would be singing a different tune on this.

The real problem is fcps changing the AP dates.

There has always been an alternative day for religious observers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forget book banning, THIS is what the SB needs to actually focus on fixing NOW. They screwed up with the O days, they need to change this back for kids.

They won't fix it.

There was some sort of committee with all sorts of groups represented that came up with some good recommendations for a calendar based of stats of the various groups represented at fcps.

The school board tossed out the recommendations and came up with this mess.

It took months of school board meetings to debate it.

Those five minutes spent on the porno books wouldn't make a dent in the time that it took for the school board to create this calendar. It will take a year of meetings to fix it, or make it worse knowing this school board.

The committee came up with recommendations, but I wouldn't call them good.

In fact, the School Board's lawyer stated that the religious holidays were very likely illegal, which is why we have the even worse O day situation.

Moving the AP test dates is ridiculous and could actually harm students.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever had a kid do AP testing in an adjoining school system? APS? ACPS? A private school?

No way my senior is still focused that close to graduation.

[Anonymous]

“ The committee came up with recommendations, but I wouldn't call them good.

In fact, the School Board's lawyer stated that the religious holidays were very likely illegal, which is why we have the even worse O day situation.

Moving the AP test dates is ridiculous and could actually harm students.”

The answer here is NOT to bow to the pressure and just give out the extra 4 holidays. It is to go back to the approach it sounded like FCPS was proposing when O days came up initially - avoid FCPS tests those days and tell schools not to schedule big one time only things like school plays, graduation, etc (non-recurring) those days and tell teachers kids get X days to make up the work or tests.

But do away with trying to literally grind the entire district to a half those days.

[Anonymous]

Can they staff sufficiently enough to pull more teachers to administer an AP test on an O day for a significant holiday like Eid? My school was barely operational on the Jewish holidays and we have equal numbers of Muslim staff members. In fact, I understand there were hundreds of unfilled vacancies across the county for the Jewish holidays. I have no idea how they think they will operate on Good Friday.

[Anonymous]

Part of the spike in vacancies on the Jewish holidays may be that the other school systems around is gave them off so if you have kids in another district like Loudoun you may have wanted to take the day. Plus the first one tacked on to a long weekend.

More comparable would be if in a normal year like 2019 the system usually had a hard time staffing those days OR to ask teachers that took those days off to identify if they did so for a religious vs for a logistical reason.

[Anonymous]

I teach one of these classes and couldn't agree more. The first week of testing, kids are ready to go and focused. By the third week they are so burned out and ready to be done. And, the retake will be a different test and a much smaller group of tests to be normed against for scoring. I pushed back as much as I could but no flexibility at all. I just hope my kids don't get sick that day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of the spike in vacancies on the Jewish holidays may be that the other school systems around is gave them off so if you have kids in another district like Loudoun you may have wanted to take the day. Plus the first one tacked on to a long weekend.

More comparable would be if in a normal year like 2019 the system usually had a hard time staffing those days OR to ask teachers that took those days off to identify if they did so for a religious vs for a logistical reason.

Well, the surrounding counties are off for Eid as well.

[Anonymous]

I see Omeish’s fingerprints all over this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ The committee came up with recommendations, but I wouldn't call them good.

In fact, the School Board's lawyer stated that the religious holidays were very likely illegal, which is why we have the even worse O day situation.

Moving the AP test dates is ridiculous and could actually harm students.”

The answer here is NOT to bow to the pressure and just give out the extra 4 holidays. It is to go back to the approach it sounded like FCPS was proposing when O days came up initially - avoid FCPS tests those days and tell schools not to schedule big one time only things like school plays, graduation, etc (non-recurring) those days and tell teachers kids get X days to make up the work or tests.

But do away with trying to literally grind the entire district to a half those days.

+1 And if they were going to add more days beyond those 4, they needed to be days that could be justified by numbers (officially none of them could be). It's beyond ridiculous that there are now 11 days of this. I don't think there should be any days that kids in school aren't being taught or encouraged to practice new skills, beyond things like the last day of school, but tolerating 4 of them would be better than 11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forget book banning, THIS is what the SB needs to actually focus on fixing NOW. They screwed up with the O days, they need to change this back for kids.

I am coming to despise the word "equity." They are doing a bang-up job turning this true-blue dem into a purple-ish, localized-republican! Of course I'd never vote for a national or state republican (at least not yet). But, this overkill on supposed "equity" is the kind of local issue that gets dems thrown out of power.

Be careful school board members.... you're screwing with my kids' education by focusing the majority of your time on niche issues and missing the MAIN PURPOSE of a public school system (i.e. educating the children).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand by this has no traction. Why are parents okay with HS aged kids getting no instruction for *11* instructional days? And now moving APs? Makeup days exist for things like Muslims observing Eid. No religion should be dictating whether kids take major national exams. Let alone 8 different religions.

I don’t get the outrage at two books in the library, while thousands of kids aren’t being allowed to take APs with the rest of the nation. This is what the WaPo should focus on.

Of course late testing means different tests than everyone else. Which means scores will be late.

I hate this so much.

Amen, sister!