MCPS to study later start times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I do not support a longer day for elementary school. Frankly, I have found the elementary curriculum to be very weak -- even more so with C2.0. I can't support having my child be in school for an even longer day, especially at that young age when play dates and after school activities and other "down" time is so important. More time with a weak curriculum and weak teachers is really not going to be helpful. For those students that enter or fall behind in elementary, rigorous research-based intervention during the school day would be most helpful. 2nd most helpful would be rigorous research-based intervention/catch-up plans after the school day or in Saturday school. Instead, right now, those students who are behind are simply given more of the same, on the theory that teaching the same way a second time will be successful.

I agree with you about the curriculum and Starr should be run out of town for what he has done to MCPS.

However, MCPS doesn't have to screw everything up. They could do this right and use the extra 30 minutes to give kids more recess time. This would support the latest research on the childhood obesity epidemic and recommendation from HHS and AAP. This would never happen in MCPS BUT wouldn't it be great if they could offer extra PE, art, music or even introduce something new like drama or a foreign language for grades 2 and above. K and 1st just need more outdoor time and play time.

The county also needs to take away the principal's discretion to cancel recess. Too many principals don't let kids go outside for recess when its under 40 or 32 degrees. Every single kid goes to play outside once they get home, get into aftercare, or go to outdoor sports. There is no reason for the principals to be canceling recess all winter. The gyms can't accommodate the size of the recess population so the kids end up copped up in their classrooms.

In our Title 1 school, kids did not have adequate warm clothes to play outside during winter. The entire winter went in coat drive for these kids. MCPS teachers were buying coats for their students out of their own pay check. It is a really grim picture for many of MCPS students,

[Anonymous]

Where is the scientific research to back this up...I here about it but have never seen anything! Instead of changing start times parents need to take away the all the electronic devices and tell their kids to shut the light off and go to bed at a reasonable time. All this BS about sleep cycles is just that! I am over 40 and i still can barely drag my ass out of bed, hmmm...

[Anonymous]

This seems like a good fix and would bring MCPS in line with most other school districts. It is impossible to please everyone but the proposal would make the bus schedule work, align the high school with a much better start times and consistent with VA schools, and also make MCPS elementary school day on par with most every other school district in MD and I think elsewhere, though I gather some mothers might resent having to wait 30 minutes for their kids to return home. How someone could oppose 30 minutes longer school day to bring MCPS into the norm is beyond me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This seems like a good fix and would bring MCPS in line with most other school districts. It is impossible to please everyone but the proposal would make the bus schedule work, align the high school with a much better start times and consistent with VA schools, and also make MCPS elementary school day on par with most every other school district in MD and I think elsewhere, though I gather some mothers might resent having to wait 30 minutes for their kids to return home. How someone could oppose 30 minutes longer school day to bring MCPS into the norm is beyond me.

Agree completely.

[Anonymous]

I really hope this passes. My high schoolers sleep through their alarms regularly. It is just to early of a start time, even when they go to bed earlier the night before.

[Anonymous]

Love this!!!

http://www.eagletribune.com/opinion/x1876265153/Pampered-teens-need-to-go-to-bed-earlier?page=1

[Anonymous]

If it costs money, it won't go anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Why start elementary so late? Those are by and large the kids who could handle the 7:30 am start. A 9:15 start means losing a good chunk of the prime learning time for kids that age.

[Anonymous]

I used to sleep > 10 hours during night when I was in elementary school. Without scientific research, just popping out of my head, young kids need more sleep time.

Anonymous wrote:Why start elementary so late? Those are by and large the kids who could handle the 7:30 am start. A 9:15 start means losing a good chunk of the prime learning time for kids that age.

[Anonymous]

I read that Moco has the second shortest ES school day in the state which is surprising..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why start elementary so late? Those are by and large the kids who could handle the 7:30 am start. A 9:15 start means losing a good chunk of the prime learning time for kids that age.

Because people don't want elementary school children waiting for the school bus in the dark.

[Anonymous]

I think it's awesome that a big announcement like this, sure to please as many people as it displeases, was dropped simultaneously with a government shutdown! Well played - even better than announcing something late in the day on a Friday before a long weekend

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's awesome that a big announcement like this, sure to please as many people as it displeases, was dropped simultaneously with a government shutdown! Well played - even better than announcing something late in the day on a Friday before a long weekend

Good grief. If MCPS announced a solution to world peace and world hunger, both, DCUM would still find a way to hate on it.

Should MCPS plan from now on to never make an announcement on any day on which some big news event might happen?

[Anonymous]

Curriculum 2.0 came from Weast - not Starr. Is that what you mean by ". . . what he has done to MCPS?"

And I am NOT a fan of Starr, by the way.

Anonymous wrote:

I do not support a longer day for elementary school. Frankly, I have found the elementary curriculum to be very weak -- even more so with C2.0. I can't support having my child be in school for an even longer day, especially at that young age when play dates and after school activities and other "down" time is so important. More time with a weak curriculum and weak teachers is really not going to be helpful. For those students that enter or fall behind in elementary, rigorous research-based intervention during the school day would be most helpful. 2nd most helpful would be rigorous research-based intervention/catch-up plans after the school day or in Saturday school. Instead, right now, those students who are behind are simply given more of the same, on the theory that teaching the same way a second time will be successful.

I agree with you about the curriculum and Starr should be run out of town for what he has done to MCPS.

However, MCPS doesn't have to screw everything up. They could do this right and use the extra 30 minutes to give kids more recess time. This would support the latest research on the childhood obesity epidemic and recommendation from HHS and AAP. This would never happen in MCPS BUT wouldn't it be great if they could offer extra PE, art, music or even introduce something new like drama or a foreign language for grades 2 and above. K and 1st just need more outdoor time and play time.

The county also needs to take away the principal's discretion to cancel recess. Too many principals don't let kids go outside for recess when its under 40 or 32 degrees. Every single kid goes to play outside once they get home, get into aftercare, or go to outdoor sports. There is no reason for the principals to be canceling recess all winter. The gyms can't accommodate the size of the recess population so the kids end up copped up in their classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Starr is recommending the following changes be studied:

- Move high school start times 50 minutes later, from 7:25 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. (school ending at 3 p.m.)
- Move middle school start times 10 minutes earlier, from 7:55 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. (school ending at 2:30 p.m.)
- Keep elementary school start times as they currently are (8:50 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.), but extend the school day by 30 minutes (school ending at 3:35 p.m. and 4 p.m.)

Would not be implemented until 2015-2016 school year.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?page=showrelease&id=3407

If this happens I would be ecstatic.