Virtual Learning - Why Not MCPS?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It’s no longer true that every student has a Chromebook. Some schools returned to the cart model because parents complained about 1:1.

Every kid in middle and high school has a chromebook all the time.

My kids (bcc cluster) certainly do. I read that Pyle MS moved away to having carts so kids only get Chromebooks when they need them which is not as often, but even if that’s the case, there are enough laptops for every student and central office should have had the foresight to tell schools to distribute them on Thursday and Friday considering every news outlet predicted a major storm.

You must be at Westland. Silver Creek uses the cart model.

The storm was predicted for a week. silver creek could have taken the computers off the cart and sent them home. My MS kid has been using his to do IXL and a few of his teachers posted assignments today due 2 days after school is back in session (whenever that is.)

If MCPS wanted to do virtual, they would have had to come up with a plan, presented it at the BOE, provided an opportunity to have public comment, and then the BOE would have needed to vote to adopt it. It could not be asynchronous; only synchronous instruction counts. These are all state requirements. MCPS did not of these. So no, Silver Creek and other schools could not have simply sent students home with Chromebooks. MUCH more planning would have had to go into it.

If only we had known there was a big storm coming a week ahead of time. Oh wait, we did.

You wanted MCPS to: create a plan, present it to the BoE, open it for public feedback, approve it by the BoE, submit it to the state, inform teachers of the intent to go virtual, have teachers create new lesson plans, etc, all over the course of one week?!?!

MCPS has a billion dollar plus budget. Last year it had 3 extra snow days it didn’t budget for.

Why are you writing as if it’s a shock to the system to expect paid staff members to plan for something that has repeatedly occurred and has been a problem?

DCPs for all its poverty did asynchronous learning today. Other school districts will do virtual learning tomorrow.

Why is MCPS doing nothing but making snow day videos?

What school district is doing synchronous virtual school tomorrow?

A tiny little school district you might of heard of called Baltimore county. They’ve depleted all 3 of their 3 allocated snow days and have moved to virtual.

Compare that to poorly planned MCPS which has used up three snow days despite only allocating one and where posters here are shocked that MCPS might be expected to plan anything after using up way more than it’s allocated snow days last year

Baltimore county moves to virtual Thursday Friday https://nottinghammd.com/2026/01/28/bcps-shifts-to-virtual-learning-on-thursday-friday-harford-co-schools-closed/
Looks like Anne arundel may be doing virtual tomorrow as well.
https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/maryland-schools-closed-virtual-learning-snow-day/

These are Maryland school districts doing something while MCPS concentrates its resources on snow day videos.

Perhaps if we watch Taylor's snow day video again, we'll feel better about our kids not getting 180 days of education.

Alexandria VA did synchronous virtual learning on Wednesday too. These schools are all better prepared than MCPS, who is an outlier in this area for its inactivity.
https://www.alxnow.com/2026/01/27/just-in-acps-will-shift-to-virtual-learning-wednesday-as-schools-remain-closed/

But MCPS can't! Because it hasn't planned for it! Because it requires Board consultation! Because it didn't distribute Chromebooks before the storm! Because it didn't distribute educational packets before the storm! Because kids have IEPs! Because teachers haven't planned!

News flash: many other counties can.

ACPS will shift to virtual learning Wednesday as schools remain closed
Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a virtual workday for students and teachers at Alexandria City Public Schools.

ACPS facilities will remain closed for all activities for a third consecutive day due to inclement weather, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt announced this afternoon. Students, teachers and staff will instead move to synchronous virtual learning plans.

“Class times will include synchronous instruction via Zoom, which means live virtual instruction with teachers, as well as independent work,” Kay-Wyatt wrote. “Teachers will also provide virtual office hours. Schools will communicate the daily bell schedule for the school day.”

ACPS’ nutrition services plan to distribute lunches free of charge to students under 18 at the following locations from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow:

Families are encouraged to check students’ Canvas or Clever accounts “no later than 8 a.m.” for specifics about scheduling. Students’ attendance will be taken through these accounts.

That's impressive that ACPS not only did synchronous learning yesterday but also did food distribution for needy kids. Clearly their superintendent does more than make snow day videos.

MCPS prioritized food distribution sites in their cleanup. Just because you didn’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Cleanup to prepare for food distribution is one thing. Did MCPS do any actual food distribution to students yesterday like ACPS did? Will it do any today? I don't think it will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a whole lot of nearby districts providing more education than MCPS...

Alexandria VA-Live virtual learning started Wednesday, continues Thursday
DCPS-Asynchonous learning Wednesday, Thursday in-person with a two hour delay
Anne Arundel-real-time virtual instruction starting Thursday and including Friday
Baltimore City and Baltimore County-virtual starting Wednesday, automatic policy as they exceeded the three snow days built into their calendar.

But we have snow day videos from Taylor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few reasons:

State doesn’t allow virtual days to count as part of the minimum 180 day requirement.

Only HS students have individual chromebooks. Most MS and ES schools have Chromebooks on carts and cannot be taken home. The software is not set up for it.

Something, something equity.

It does if school districts submit a virtual learning plan in advance, but MCPS opted not to submit one for this year.

I can’t understand why they didn’t. It just does not make any sense to me that when a viable back up plan is available why it would not be utilized.

Is this a decision the superintendent, board of Education, or teachers union make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pro-virtual learning people just need to admit that they have anxiety about not seeing their kids doing SOMETHING that looks academic.

They don't care if the worksheets are busy work that doesn't lead to genuine learning.

They don't care if the kids' eyes glaze over from staring at the screen on Zoom for hours at a time.

Forcing their kids to perform school-like activities is more important than impact and outcome.

I disagree, obviously, but those parents should be honest that their panic is more about assuaging their own anxieties and not their kids' development and well-being.

It’s unfortunate you don’t prioritize academics. This is why kids are failing and struggling.

I prioritize GENUINE and EFFECTIVE instruction and learning. Which data thus far says happens best with in-person, face-to-face instruction.

Synthetic, virtual “learning” is not real education. It’s a crude imitation that yields weak academic results at best, and many emotional and developmental harms at worst.

Snow day virtual learning doesn't need to be comparitive to a real full day of instruction. It need to be compared to the alternative of a day tacked on to the end of the school year, which is notoriously just a daycare day. Both are subpar to a true instructional day, but those are the options for make up currently. So those are the options to compare and decide between.

There is another option though which I think is superior. Begin the school year earlier in August (no sense in adding those days on at the end of the year since time prior to state testing and AP testing is more useful). Then we can keep our breaks and have built in snow days, plus the students will have less of a gap in learning. 7 weeks of summer vacation is enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few reasons:

State doesn’t allow virtual days to count as part of the minimum 180 day requirement.

Only HS students have individual chromebooks. Most MS and ES schools have Chromebooks on carts and cannot be taken home. The software is not set up for it.

Something, something equity.

It does if school districts submit a virtual learning plan in advance, but MCPS opted not to submit one for this year.

I can’t understand why they didn’t. It just does not make any sense to me that when a viable back up plan is available why it would not be utilized.

Is this a decision the superintendent, board of Education, or teachers union make?

[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:It’s no longer true that every student has a Chromebook. Some schools returned to the cart model because parents complained about 1:1.

Every kid in middle and high school has a chromebook all the time.

My kids (bcc cluster) certainly do. I read that Pyle MS moved away to having carts so kids only get Chromebooks when they need them which is not as often, but even if that’s the case, there are enough laptops for every student and central office should have had the foresight to tell schools to distribute them on Thursday and Friday considering every news outlet predicted a major storm.

You must be at Westland. Silver Creek uses the cart model.

The storm was predicted for a week. silver creek could have taken the computers off the cart and sent them home. My MS kid has been using his to do IXL and a few of his teachers posted assignments today due 2 days after school is back in session (whenever that is.)

If MCPS wanted to do virtual, they would have had to come up with a plan, presented it at the BOE, provided an opportunity to have public comment, and then the BOE would have needed to vote to adopt it. It could not be asynchronous; only synchronous instruction counts. These are all state requirements. MCPS did not of these. So no, Silver Creek and other schools could not have simply sent students home with Chromebooks. MUCH more planning would have had to go into it.

If only we had known there was a big storm coming a week ahead of time. Oh wait, we did.

You wanted MCPS to: create a plan, present it to the BoE, open it for public feedback, approve it by the BoE, submit it to the state, inform teachers of the intent to go virtual, have teachers create new lesson plans, etc, all over the course of one week?!?!

MCPS has a billion dollar plus budget. Last year it had 3 extra snow days it didn’t budget for.

Why are you writing as if it’s a shock to the system to expect paid staff members to plan for something that has repeatedly occurred and has been a problem?

DCPs for all its poverty did asynchronous learning today. Other school districts will do virtual learning tomorrow.

Why is MCPS doing nothing but making snow day videos?

What school district is doing synchronous virtual school tomorrow?

A tiny little school district you might of heard of called Baltimore county. They’ve depleted all 3 of their 3 allocated snow days and have moved to virtual.

Compare that to poorly planned MCPS which has used up three snow days despite only allocating one and where posters here are shocked that MCPS might be expected to plan anything after using up way more than it’s allocated snow days last year

Baltimore county moves to virtual Thursday Friday https://nottinghammd.com/2026/01/28/bcps-shifts-to-virtual-learning-on-thursday-friday-harford-co-schools-closed/
Looks like Anne arundel may be doing virtual tomorrow as well.
https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/maryland-schools-closed-virtual-learning-snow-day/

These are Maryland school districts doing something while MCPS concentrates its resources on snow day videos.

Perhaps if we watch Taylor's snow day video again, we'll feel better about our kids not getting 180 days of education.

Alexandria VA did synchronous virtual learning on Wednesday too. These schools are all better prepared than MCPS, who is an outlier in this area for its inactivity.
https://www.alxnow.com/2026/01/27/just-in-acps-will-shift-to-virtual-learning-wednesday-as-schools-remain-closed/

But MCPS can't! Because it hasn't planned for it! Because it requires Board consultation! Because it didn't distribute Chromebooks before the storm! Because it didn't distribute educational packets before the storm! Because kids have IEPs! Because teachers haven't planned!

News flash: many other counties can.

ACPS will shift to virtual learning Wednesday as schools remain closed
Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a virtual workday for students and teachers at Alexandria City Public Schools.

ACPS facilities will remain closed for all activities for a third consecutive day due to inclement weather, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt announced this afternoon. Students, teachers and staff will instead move to synchronous virtual learning plans.

“Class times will include synchronous instruction via Zoom, which means live virtual instruction with teachers, as well as independent work,” Kay-Wyatt wrote. “Teachers will also provide virtual office hours. Schools will communicate the daily bell schedule for the school day.”

ACPS’ nutrition services plan to distribute lunches free of charge to students under 18 at the following locations from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow:

Families are encouraged to check students’ Canvas or Clever accounts “no later than 8 a.m.” for specifics about scheduling. Students’ attendance will be taken through these accounts.

That's impressive that ACPS not only did synchronous learning yesterday but also did food distribution for needy kids. Clearly their superintendent does more than make snow day videos.

MCPS prioritized food distribution sites in their cleanup. Just because you didn’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Cleanup to prepare for food distribution is one thing. Did MCPS do any actual food distribution to students yesterday like ACPS did? Will it do any today? I don't think it will.

Yes, they did have food distribution sites across the county yesterday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few reasons:

State doesn’t allow virtual days to count as part of the minimum 180 day requirement.

Only HS students have individual chromebooks. Most MS and ES schools have Chromebooks on carts and cannot be taken home. The software is not set up for it.

Something, something equity.

It does if school districts submit a virtual learning plan in advance, but MCPS opted not to submit one for this year.

I can’t understand why they didn’t. It just does not make any sense to me that when a viable back up plan is available why it would not be utilized.

Is this a decision the superintendent, board of Education, or teachers union make?

All decisions regarding the calendar and inclement weather policy are up to the Board of Education and the Superintendent. In this case, the union has absolutely nothing to do with it. I'm an MCPS teacher, and I've contacted union leaders including the president and that's the answer I get every time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pro-virtual learning people just need to admit that they have anxiety about not seeing their kids doing SOMETHING that looks academic.

They don't care if the worksheets are busy work that doesn't lead to genuine learning.

They don't care if the kids' eyes glaze over from staring at the screen on Zoom for hours at a time.

Forcing their kids to perform school-like activities is more important than impact and outcome.

I disagree, obviously, but those parents should be honest that their panic is more about assuaging their own anxieties and not their kids' development and well-being.

It’s unfortunate you don’t prioritize academics. This is why kids are failing and struggling.

I prioritize GENUINE and EFFECTIVE instruction and learning. Which data thus far says happens best with in-person, face-to-face instruction.

Synthetic, virtual “learning” is not real education. It’s a crude imitation that yields weak academic results at best, and many emotional and developmental harms at worst.

Snow day virtual learning doesn't need to be comparitive to a real full day of instruction. It need to be compared to the alternative of a day tacked on to the end of the school year, which is notoriously just a daycare day. Both are subpar to a true instructional day, but those are the options for make up currently. So those are the options to compare and decide between.

There is another option though which I think is superior. Begin the school year earlier in August (no sense in adding those days on at the end of the year since time prior to state testing and AP testing is more useful). Then we can keep our breaks and have built in snow days, plus the students will have less of a gap in learning. 7 weeks of summer vacation is enough.

It’s not subpar to have real virtual learning but anything I’d better than nothing. 7 weeks is not enough with summer prep for sports, jobs and camps. Do you only want the pools open 7 weeks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a whole lot of nearby districts providing more education than MCPS...

Alexandria VA-Live virtual learning started Wednesday, continues Thursday
DCPS-Asynchonous learning Wednesday, Thursday in-person with a two hour delay
Anne Arundel-real-time virtual instruction starting Thursday and including Friday
Baltimore City and Baltimore County-virtual starting Wednesday, automatic policy as they exceeded the three snow days built into their calendar.

But we have snow day videos from Taylor!

Since he is anti virtual, he should do live performances.

[Anonymous]

Let’s be honest, the virtual learning schools provide on snow days is really just busy work. Schools are not doing it because they actually care about the students missing too much learning time, it is done so admin doesn’t need to figure out making up the missed school day by taking away a teacher workday or adding to the end of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pro-virtual learning people just need to admit that they have anxiety about not seeing their kids doing SOMETHING that looks academic.

They don't care if the worksheets are busy work that doesn't lead to genuine learning.

They don't care if the kids' eyes glaze over from staring at the screen on Zoom for hours at a time.

Forcing their kids to perform school-like activities is more important than impact and outcome.

I disagree, obviously, but those parents should be honest that their panic is more about assuaging their own anxieties and not their kids' development and well-being.

It’s unfortunate you don’t prioritize academics. This is why kids are failing and struggling.

I prioritize GENUINE and EFFECTIVE instruction and learning. Which data thus far says happens best with in-person, face-to-face instruction.

Synthetic, virtual “learning” is not real education. It’s a crude imitation that yields weak academic results at best, and many emotional and developmental harms at worst.

Snow day virtual learning doesn't need to be comparitive to a real full day of instruction. It need to be compared to the alternative of a day tacked on to the end of the school year, which is notoriously just a daycare day. Both are subpar to a true instructional day, but those are the options for make up currently. So those are the options to compare and decide between.

There is another option though which I think is superior. Begin the school year earlier in August (no sense in adding those days on at the end of the year since time prior to state testing and AP testing is more useful). Then we can keep our breaks and have built in snow days, plus the students will have less of a gap in learning. 7 weeks of summer vacation is enough.

It’s not subpar to have real virtual learning but anything I’d better than nothing. 7 weeks is not enough with summer prep for sports, jobs and camps. Do you only want the pools open 7 weeks?

Honestly, the pool schedule is about the last thing I'd consider if I was making decisions about the school calendar. But I think pools can do the same things they do from memorial day till the last day of school. They're still open then, and college age kids can work them during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few reasons:

State doesn’t allow virtual days to count as part of the minimum 180 day requirement.

Only HS students have individual chromebooks. Most MS and ES schools have Chromebooks on carts and cannot be taken home. The software is not set up for it.

Something, something equity.

It does if school districts submit a virtual learning plan in advance, but MCPS opted not to submit one for this year.

I can’t understand why they didn’t. It just does not make any sense to me that when a viable back up plan is available why it would not be utilized.

Is this a decision the superintendent, board of Education, or teachers union make?

All decisions regarding the calendar and inclement weather policy are up to the Board of Education and the Superintendent. In this case, the union has absolutely nothing to do with it. I'm an MCPS teacher, and I've contacted union leaders including the president and that's the answer I get every time.

Thank you for answering my question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pro-virtual learning people just need to admit that they have anxiety about not seeing their kids doing SOMETHING that looks academic.

They don't care if the worksheets are busy work that doesn't lead to genuine learning.

They don't care if the kids' eyes glaze over from staring at the screen on Zoom for hours at a time.

Forcing their kids to perform school-like activities is more important than impact and outcome.

I disagree, obviously, but those parents should be honest that their panic is more about assuaging their own anxieties and not their kids' development and well-being.

It’s unfortunate you don’t prioritize academics. This is why kids are failing and struggling.

I prioritize GENUINE and EFFECTIVE instruction and learning. Which data thus far says happens best with in-person, face-to-face instruction.

Synthetic, virtual “learning” is not real education. It’s a crude imitation that yields weak academic results at best, and many emotional and developmental harms at worst.

Snow day virtual learning doesn't need to be comparitive to a real full day of instruction. It need to be compared to the alternative of a day tacked on to the end of the school year, which is notoriously just a daycare day. Both are subpar to a true instructional day, but those are the options for make up currently. So those are the options to compare and decide between.

There is another option though which I think is superior. Begin the school year earlier in August (no sense in adding those days on at the end of the year since time prior to state testing and AP testing is more useful). Then we can keep our breaks and have built in snow days, plus the students will have less of a gap in learning. 7 weeks of summer vacation is enough.

It’s not subpar to have real virtual learning but anything I’d better than nothing. 7 weeks is not enough with summer prep for sports, jobs and camps. Do you only want the pools open 7 weeks?

Honestly, the pool schedule is about the last thing I'd consider if I was making decisions about the school calendar. But I think pools can do the same things they do from memorial day till the last day of school. They're still open then, and college age kids can work them during the school day.

College kids go back in early August and most are scrambling to get workers in August. B

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few reasons:

State doesn’t allow virtual days to count as part of the minimum 180 day requirement.

Only HS students have individual chromebooks. Most MS and ES schools have Chromebooks on carts and cannot be taken home. The software is not set up for it.

Something, something equity.

It does if school districts submit a virtual learning plan in advance, but MCPS opted not to submit one for this year.

I can’t understand why they didn’t. It just does not make any sense to me that when a viable back up plan is available why it would not be utilized.

Is this a decision the superintendent, board of Education, or teachers union make?

MSDE had a rule that public comments had to be allowed on the plan. Looking at DCUM, why would MCPS want to do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pro-virtual learning people just need to admit that they have anxiety about not seeing their kids doing SOMETHING that looks academic.

They don't care if the worksheets are busy work that doesn't lead to genuine learning.

They don't care if the kids' eyes glaze over from staring at the screen on Zoom for hours at a time.

Forcing their kids to perform school-like activities is more important than impact and outcome.

I disagree, obviously, but those parents should be honest that their panic is more about assuaging their own anxieties and not their kids' development and well-being.

It’s unfortunate you don’t prioritize academics. This is why kids are failing and struggling.

I prioritize GENUINE and EFFECTIVE instruction and learning. Which data thus far says happens best with in-person, face-to-face instruction.

Synthetic, virtual “learning” is not real education. It’s a crude imitation that yields weak academic results at best, and many emotional and developmental harms at worst.

Snow day virtual learning doesn't need to be comparitive to a real full day of instruction. It need to be compared to the alternative of a day tacked on to the end of the school year, which is notoriously just a daycare day. Both are subpar to a true instructional day, but those are the options for make up currently. So those are the options to compare and decide between.

There is another option though which I think is superior. Begin the school year earlier in August (no sense in adding those days on at the end of the year since time prior to state testing and AP testing is more useful). Then we can keep our breaks and have built in snow days, plus the students will have less of a gap in learning. 7 weeks of summer vacation is enough.

I don’t think you’re gonna have a lot of company in supporting a 7 week summer. In Georgia and other places that start in early August, students finish before Memorial Day.