The legislature may end up reverting the makeup days...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This. We need to start one week earlier
They are already doing that in 26-27 as the first day is two weeks before Labor Day when it has always been one week before Labor Day (or after Labor Day in some years).
NO towards starting another week earlier, I'd prefer they start the week of August 31 (teachers have to come in a week earlier), 2 weeks December-early January, 4 or 5 day weekend for President's Day, 1 week spring break after 3Q, 4 Day weekend late April (coincide with Easter if it is later), end before Juneteenth.

We started August 26th this school year, and start August 25th next school year. Just 1 day difference. It is because of where Labor Day falls. This is not the first year that Labor Day is September 7, it is the first year ever to start earlier than the 1 week mark (last Monday in August). This is due to more holidays. https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/12-09_7386 (2009-10)
https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/Montgomery_2015-16_SchoolCalendar(1) (2015-16)
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/elementary-schools/d-g/drewes/homepage/0332.20ct_2020-21_schoolyearcalendar_amended-10_6.pdf (2020-21)
Those years had school the Wednesdays before Thanksgiving and Christmas which is very undesirable. Almost everywhere south and west of Maryland has 2 weeks off in December into January and some even are off the full week of Thanksgiving (though they are only separated by 3 weeks).

The Wednesdays before Thanksgiving and Christmas just moves the number from 184 to 182 (the transition day further reduced that to 181). It's the addition of Diwali, Lunar New Year, and 2 Eid holidays that extended the year a week.
------------------------- The fair law solution due to additional holidays:
School starts as early as the last Monday in August to as late as week of Labor Day and ends BEFORE Juneteenth. Schools still have to schedule 1080 hours (ES/MS), 1170 hours (HS) but can lose up to 30 hours below the minimum before any makeup time is needed. The more hours scheduled above the minimum the less likely that makeup time is needed. If a single bad weather event results in schools being closed THREE (3) or more days, schools can go virtual starting on the 3rd closure day. If schools have been closed FIVE (5) or more days excluding any virtual days, schools can choose to be open on either Good Friday or Easter Monday as a makeup day (but not both). The mandated closure on election day every even year November can also be allowed to be a virtual school day.
-----------------------
How would that work for the current school year?
School was closed for 6 days so either Good Friday or Easter Monday would automatically be allowed to be a school day as a result of reaching the 5 closure threshold.
The first storm closed school for five days. Schools would have been allowed to go virtual for the last 3 days. If that happened there would only be 3 full closures instead of 6.
Schools aren't required to go virtual but it would be a choice which should be influenced by the community. The same goes with a Good Friday or Easter Monday makeup, if the community supports it. If the schools still have 1050 (ES/MS)/1140 (HS) or more hours after full closures, no makeups are required.
------------------------
How would next year's calendar be affected?
Schools would start no earlier than the week of August 31 for students (last Monday of August) and the ending would still be the same time before Juneteenth. The actual number of school days scheduled would be based on how various holidays fall, adequate break time and enough cushion to decrease the chance of more than 1 makeup day while thwarting an extended single storm closure with virtual days. Election day can be replaced with more time off around President's Day (midway between winter and spring breaks) or holding spring break away from Easter (when Easter isn't near the end of 3Q).

This is a solid solution. I'm sorry if I missed something. Did the poster come up with this, or is this solution being considered in the legislature?

Heck no! School should not start any earlier!

+1. We need a longer summer, not shorter!

[Anonymous]

When do they vote?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Right. MCPS students are spending more time on testing and less time on instruction than 20 years ago, but we still decreased the number of school days by 3. We should be doing the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This. We need to start one week earlier
They are already doing that in 26-27 as the first day is two weeks before Labor Day when it has always been one week before Labor Day (or after Labor Day in some years).
NO towards starting another week earlier, I'd prefer they start the week of August 31 (teachers have to come in a week earlier), 2 weeks December-early January, 4 or 5 day weekend for President's Day, 1 week spring break after 3Q, 4 Day weekend late April (coincide with Easter if it is later), end before Juneteenth.

We started August 26th this school year, and start August 25th next school year. Just 1 day difference. It is because of where Labor Day falls. This is not the first year that Labor Day is September 7, it is the first year ever to start earlier than the 1 week mark (last Monday in August). This is due to more holidays. https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/12-09_7386 (2009-10)
https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/Montgomery_2015-16_SchoolCalendar(1) (2015-16)
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/elementary-schools/d-g/drewes/homepage/0332.20ct_2020-21_schoolyearcalendar_amended-10_6.pdf (2020-21)
Those years had school the Wednesdays before Thanksgiving and Christmas which is very undesirable. Almost everywhere south and west of Maryland has 2 weeks off in December into January and some even are off the full week of Thanksgiving (though they are only separated by 3 weeks).

The Wednesdays before Thanksgiving and Christmas just moves the number from 184 to 182 (the transition day further reduced that to 181). It's the addition of Diwali, Lunar New Year, and 2 Eid holidays that extended the year a week.
------------------------- The fair law solution due to additional holidays:
School starts as early as the last Monday in August to as late as week of Labor Day and ends BEFORE Juneteenth. Schools still have to schedule 1080 hours (ES/MS), 1170 hours (HS) but can lose up to 30 hours below the minimum before any makeup time is needed. The more hours scheduled above the minimum the less likely that makeup time is needed. If a single bad weather event results in schools being closed THREE (3) or more days, schools can go virtual starting on the 3rd closure day. If schools have been closed FIVE (5) or more days excluding any virtual days, schools can choose to be open on either Good Friday or Easter Monday as a makeup day (but not both). The mandated closure on election day every even year November can also be allowed to be a virtual school day.
-----------------------
How would that work for the current school year?
School was closed for 6 days so either Good Friday or Easter Monday would automatically be allowed to be a school day as a result of reaching the 5 closure threshold.
The first storm closed school for five days. Schools would have been allowed to go virtual for the last 3 days. If that happened there would only be 3 full closures instead of 6.
Schools aren't required to go virtual but it would be a choice which should be influenced by the community. The same goes with a Good Friday or Easter Monday makeup, if the community supports it. If the schools still have 1050 (ES/MS)/1140 (HS) or more hours after full closures, no makeups are required.
------------------------
How would next year's calendar be affected?
Schools would start no earlier than the week of August 31 for students (last Monday of August) and the ending would still be the same time before Juneteenth. The actual number of school days scheduled would be based on how various holidays fall, adequate break time and enough cushion to decrease the chance of more than 1 makeup day while thwarting an extended single storm closure with virtual days. Election day can be replaced with more time off around President's Day (midway between winter and spring breaks) or holding spring break away from Easter (when Easter isn't near the end of 3Q).

This is a solid solution. I'm sorry if I missed something. Did the poster come up with this, or is this solution being considered in the legislature?

Heck no! School should not start any earlier!

+1. We need a longer summer, not shorter!

We certainly don't need it. It isn't good for students to be off that long. The only people who benefit are teachers. That's not intended to be a slight against teachers- they're overworked in their jobs. But longer summers isn't a good way to address that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Yeah, math and reading proficiency hasn't dropped enough in MD, let's help it along

It has everywhere. It’s a parenting problem, not a public education problem.

No, it's a public education problem. There are three groups of students now:
- the very bright kids that will figure things out by themselves no matter what
- the kids whose parents hire tutors when they realize how bad the instruction is
- the large majority of kids that will graduate lacking proficiency in math and reading

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Right. MCPS students are spending more time on testing and less time on instruction than 20 years ago, but we still decreased the number of school days by 3. We should be doing the opposite.

People want their holidays off.
Maryland still gets more instruction time then most states require.
Because of the current 180 calendar day + makeup day requirements there are only 2 school free weeks during the school year while most of the country gets 3 or 4.
The issue is that people think quantity is the same as quality. You could have a successful 170-175 day school year if the quality is good and not if it is bad. Same goes for 180+ days.
Due to the religious holidays, grading days and bad weather days 180 calendar days doesn't work well in Maryland due to the lack of breaks.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard any info on how this is looking in the Senate and if/when they might act? Looks like they've done nothing on it so far since it was passed out of the House and sent to the Senate a week ago: https://legiscan.com/MD/bill/HB1084/2026

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Right. MCPS students are spending more time on testing and less time on instruction than 20 years ago, but we still decreased the number of school days by 3. We should be doing the opposite.

People want their holidays off.
Maryland still gets more instruction time then most states require.
Because of the current 180 calendar day + makeup day requirements there are only 2 school free weeks during the school year while most of the country gets 3 or 4.
The issue is that people think quantity is the same as quality. You could have a successful 170-175 day school year if the quality is good and not if it is bad. Same goes for 180+ days.
Due to the religious holidays, grading days and bad weather days 180 calendar days doesn't work well in Maryland due to the lack of breaks.

It works fine once you accept that extended summers off are antiquated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Yeah, math and reading proficiency hasn't dropped enough in MD, let's help it along

It has everywhere. It’s a parenting problem, not a public education problem.

No, it's a public education problem. There are three groups of students now:
- the very bright kids that will figure things out by themselves no matter what
- the kids whose parents hire tutors when they realize how bad the instruction is
- the large majority of kids that will graduate lacking proficiency in math and reading

Um no. Students aren’t learning because there are so many behavior disruptions which is a direct result of nonexistent parenting. Parents rely on everyone else but themselves to raise their kids and it’s so very obvious in this generation. Do try and keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard any info on how this is looking in the Senate and if/when they might act? Looks like they've done nothing on it so far since it was passed out of the House and sent to the Senate a week ago: https://legiscan.com/MD/bill/HB1084/2026

Maybe some Senators came to their senses. I don't see why anyone would vote for this once they understand its implications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Right. MCPS students are spending more time on testing and less time on instruction than 20 years ago, but we still decreased the number of school days by 3. We should be doing the opposite.

People want their holidays off.
Maryland still gets more instruction time then most states require.
Because of the current 180 calendar day + makeup day requirements there are only 2 school free weeks during the school year while most of the country gets 3 or 4.
The issue is that people think quantity is the same as quality. You could have a successful 170-175 day school year if the quality is good and not if it is bad. Same goes for 180+ days.
Due to the religious holidays, grading days and bad weather days 180 calendar days doesn't work well in Maryland due to the lack of breaks.

And the amount of time we get now is not enough for the kids in this system. It is absolutely infuriating that Taylor and the BOE have been pushing the state to get them out of the 180 day requirement permanently, which is what the bill did as introduced. Our kids need more time, not less time, in school. And MCPS needs a calendar that makes sense so we don't have to tack on days 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:

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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.

It isn't "good" nor does it facilitate keeping "pace with covering material." Elementary school classes wouldn't be able to cover new material. Far too many kids wouldn't be there. And of those who are, many wouldn't be able to learn effectively.

Presumably your in-person instruction didn’t do you much good, because you can’t distinguish between your own opinion and a fact.

My kid actually did learn the difference between opinion and fact during virtual learning 1st grade during the COVID years.

The fact is that your kid was an exceptional case. We know there was tremendous learning loss during covid.

DP. No see, the actual drop in testing scores is opinion but that posters one kid's experience is fact.

You’re comparing the effectiveness of virtual school to in-person school, when the correct comparison in this situation is comparing virtual school to having no instruction at all. Where is your evidence that virtual school is worse than no school at all?

This year, MCPS chose to shortchange its kids 5 days of instructional time, so they won’t get 180 days like students around America. I personally would have preferred that my kids had virtual learning during those snow days-just like kids in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Alexandria, Boston and New York City.

Instead our kids get 175 days of education-now that is a factor that contributes to learning loss.

Colorado has 160 days. The kids will be just fine.

Schools in Colorado don't opt for the bare minimum that is legally mandated, unlike MCPS.

Well it's a lot easier to cover the minimum there so why would that be a surprise. 180 days is tough with more holidays and worse with makeup day requirements.

31 states have a 180-day school year requirement.

Ah and this is where people are fooled. While 31 states says "180 days" most of them are more flexible; some like Virginia allow an hours substitute, some like New York allow a few PD days to count and some like California require 180 scheduled calendar school days but forgive all emergency closures. In NY schools can now go virtual to avoid makeup days. Maryland doesn't have any of those flexibilities.

Maryland needs to keep up with the times.

Yeah, math and reading proficiency hasn't dropped enough in MD, let's help it along

It has everywhere. It’s a parenting problem, not a public education problem.

No, it's a public education problem. There are three groups of students now:
- the very bright kids that will figure things out by themselves no matter what
- the kids whose parents hire tutors when they realize how bad the instruction is
- the large majority of kids that will graduate lacking proficiency in math and reading

Um no. Students aren’t learning because there are so many behavior disruptions which is a direct result of nonexistent parenting. Parents rely on everyone else but themselves to raise their kids and it’s so very obvious in this generation. Do try and keep up.

They are acting up because they don't know how to read

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard any info on how this is looking in the Senate and if/when they might act? Looks like they've done nothing on it so far since it was passed out of the House and sent to the Senate a week ago: https://legiscan.com/MD/bill/HB1084/2026

Maybe some Senators came to their senses. I don't see why anyone would vote for this once they understand its implications.

+1. I hope this dies in the Senate. But parents must keep up advocacy because you know that both the teachers union and MCPS are pushing this hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It works fine once you accept that extended summers off are antiquated.

When you mean extended summers, do you mean at least 10 weeks?
If so they are not nearly as rare as you claim but this is becoming more of an issue in the DMV.
First it was just the DC public schools. Their year got a week longer because of many PD days and 2 PTC days in addition to 180 student days.
Then Fairfax joined in with a bunch of non-student workdays but unlike DC these were to close on many religious holidays.
Now Montgomery County is a week longer
Other DMV counties like Loudoun and Prince George's appear to be losing a week of summer too though in PG it's because of the Maryland makeup law. They would have ended June 12 without the makeup requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It works fine once you accept that extended summers off are antiquated.

When you mean extended summers, do you mean at least 10 weeks?
If so they are not nearly as rare as you claim but this is becoming more of an issue in the DMV.
First it was just the DC public schools. Their year got a week longer because of many PD days and 2 PTC days in addition to 180 student days.
Then Fairfax joined in with a bunch of non-student workdays but unlike DC these were to close on many religious holidays.
Now Montgomery County is a week longer
Other DMV counties like Loudoun and Prince George's appear to be losing a week of summer too though in PG it's because of the Maryland makeup law. They would have ended June 12 without the makeup requirement.

I didn't say extended summers off are rare. I said they're antiquated. We have air conditioning. We don't need 10+ weeks off for summer.