Have you asked to switch HS counselor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it normal for school counselors to ask questions multiple times to children about what gender do they identify with?
Once kid answer the question I wonder why do they repeat such questions? Do they think the kid will give a different answer?

What is the purpose of all these repeated questioning? What curriculum is being thought here?

They're grooming. Obvs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Sometimes they accidentally post schedules visibly before they should. It is in no way final, though, so don't get too happy or discouraged yet.

MCPS HS counselor here. I want to reiterate this. Students were automatically scheduled for their requested classes in StudentVUE and I've just started going through my caseload to correct all sorts of errors. This process will take me weeks, and then when students inevitably find mistakes I've made or realize they wish they'd requested different classes towards the beginning of the school year, I'll revisit many of these schedules. I make errors every year, so I'd always rather have someone reach out if they identify a problem. But sometimes with these leaks, students see super outdated draft versions of their schedules that have already been corrected.

OP, it sounds like there may be more going on than just a simple scheduling mistake? Don't be afraid to respectfully reach out to your child's Resource Counselor, IB Coordinator, and grade level administrator for support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sometimes they accidentally post schedules visibly before they should. It is in no way final, though, so don't get too happy or discouraged yet.

MCPS HS counselor here. I want to reiterate this. Students were automatically scheduled for their requested classes in StudentVUE and I've just started going through my caseload to correct all sorts of errors. This process will take me weeks, and then when students inevitably find mistakes I've made or realize they wish they'd requested different classes towards the beginning of the school year, I'll revisit many of these schedules. I make errors every year, so I'd always rather have someone reach out if they identify a problem. But sometimes with these leaks, students see super outdated draft versions of their schedules that have already been corrected.

OP, it sounds like there may be more going on than just a simple scheduling mistake? Don't be afraid to respectfully reach out to your child's Resource Counselor, IB Coordinator, and grade level administrator for support.

DP. Thanks for explaining this. Can you say more about why, if students are automatically registered for their requested classes, this would lead to all sorts of errors? Is the system not configured in a way that would prevent these errors? Is this a failure of the software, or are students requesting combinations of classes they shouldn't be requesting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DP. Thanks for explaining this. Can you say more about why, if students are automatically registered for their requested classes, this would lead to all sorts of errors? Is the system not configured in a way that would prevent these errors? Is this a failure of the software, or are students requesting combinations of classes they shouldn't be requesting?

In my school, we begin meeting with students in December to select the following year's courses. This is where we catch most of the students who intend to register for classes they shouldn't be taking (e.g. they haven't met the prerequisite, the class isn't what they think it is, etc.). The deadline for our students to submit their requests, along with some back ups, is late Feb/early March. Then, leadership and admin use this information to start sorting out how many sections of each class we'll offer, which electives will run, etc. MCPS might decide to change how calculate staffing numbers/budget, which means we might lose or gain teaching positions. This year, we lost several teaching positions, and therefore, many opportunities to offer niche electives, ample course sections, etc. From there, our master scheduler finalizes the course schedule.

Our software then generates schedules for all students with requests in. It's definitely more efficient than manually creating thousands of schedules from scratch, but the system can only do so much. Student requests might not align with the master schedule. For example, students may request multiple classes that only have one or two sections, or electives that didn't get the numbers we need to run them. Sometimes the software just leaves scheduling holes or double books students, for whatever reason.

This is where I'm at right now, going though all my students' schedules to correct these initial errors. At this time, I am also making sure my students with IEPs are in any co-taught classes they need, making sure my students in dual enrollment have abbreviated schedules at the right time, monitoring how my students are doing in summer school (because this may result in schedule changes), separating any super problematic groupings of students, and trying to honor ongoing schedule requests as they come in. These are all things our software can't really automate at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP. Thanks for explaining this. Can you say more about why, if students are automatically registered for their requested classes, this would lead to all sorts of errors? Is the system not configured in a way that would prevent these errors? Is this a failure of the software, or are students requesting combinations of classes they shouldn't be requesting?

In my school, we begin meeting with students in December to select the following year's courses. This is where we catch most of the students who intend to register for classes they shouldn't be taking (e.g. they haven't met the prerequisite, the class isn't what they think it is, etc.). The deadline for our students to submit their requests, along with some back ups, is late Feb/early March. Then, leadership and admin use this information to start sorting out how many sections of each class we'll offer, which electives will run, etc. MCPS might decide to change how calculate staffing numbers/budget, which means we might lose or gain teaching positions. This year, we lost several teaching positions, and therefore, many opportunities to offer niche electives, ample course sections, etc. From there, our master scheduler finalizes the course schedule.

Our software then generates schedules for all students with requests in. It's definitely more efficient than manually creating thousands of schedules from scratch, but the system can only do so much. Student requests might not align with the master schedule. For example, students may request multiple classes that only have one or two sections, or electives that didn't get the numbers we need to run them. Sometimes the software just leaves scheduling holes or double books students, for whatever reason.

This is where I'm at right now, going though all my students' schedules to correct these initial errors. At this time, I am also making sure my students with IEPs are in any co-taught classes they need, making sure my students in dual enrollment have abbreviated schedules at the right time, monitoring how my students are doing in summer school (because this may result in schedule changes), separating any super problematic groupings of students, and trying to honor ongoing schedule requests as they come in. These are all things our software can't really automate at this point.

Thanks, Counselor PP! We appreciate you!