2026-2027 calendar updates

[Anonymous]

Beg to differ about how many camps are located in school buildings.

[Anonymous]

If you fill out the survey more than once, are they able to decipher this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

Pretty sure those kids aren't upset about it so I would let it go before you burst a blood vessel in your brain

Pretty sure you don’t have a clue what thousands of kids want or need, you just want to get paid for not working at your MCPS job.

I'd wager they know more than you do and it has absolutely nothing to do with not wanting to do their job. Parents like you are insufferable. Your lizard brain reverts back to middle school name-calling when you don't get your way and just want to blame someone for your troubles, so you throw a temper tantrum and blame teachers. It's pathetic and prevalent in this community. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

Pretty sure those kids aren't upset about it so I would let it go before you burst a blood vessel in your brain

Pretty sure you don’t have a clue what thousands of kids want or need, you just want to get paid for not working at your MCPS job.

I'd wager they know more than you do and it has absolutely nothing to do with not wanting to do their job. Parents like you are insufferable. Your lizard brain reverts back to middle school name-calling when you don't get your way and just want to blame someone for your troubles, so you throw a temper tantrum and blame teachers. It's pathetic and prevalent in this community. Grow up.

Curious to see which MCPS Central Office staffer you get accused of being.

[Anonymous]

I do wonder about the reading comp skills of the MCPS Central Office after looking at the MDSE info. It requires ending by Juneteenth, and either 6 built in makeup days if no virtual learning plan or 3 if a virtual learning plan is in place - TO BE ELIGiBLE FOR WAIVER of 180 days. So current 26-27 calendar ends by Juneteenth. MCPS has applied for virtual learning plan. They have 2 built in days before Juneteenth (3/9 and 6/17). They need 1 more built in day to be eligible for a waiver. This is SO simple. As many people have said ditch the transition day (or move only that day into the prior week) or cancel the Diwali day that is not Diwali. DONE. Nobody with camps, vacations or other important family time ore-planned in late Aug affected. Why are they thinking moving into the prior week is necessary or desirable at all? Do they just want to create chaos and upset everyone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2-3 days here or there make no difference to education. Kids are not being shortchanged by calendar changes. They’re being shortchanged by being addicted to cell phones and MCPS along with parents looking the other way. Y’all get riled up about the wrong things

That's your opinion. Many others would disagree. Massachusetts schedules 184 days a year and has among the highest performing states in terms of educational outcomes in the country.

You just want to take the lazy way out by blaming "cell phone addiction." And you're wrong, because there are a lot of little kids with no cell phones in MCPS who are still not achieving grade level standards.

Asked AI if there is a correlation between required school days by states and standardized test scores? Guess what the answer is...

Short answer: no meaningful correlation, and the main reason is that states barely differ on this variable.
The variance is tiny. About 27–31 states plus DC require exactly 180 days, and the overall range is only 160 (Colorado, lowest) to 186 (Kansas, highest). When ~60% of states sit on the same value, you don't have enough spread to drive a correlation with anything.
The top NAEP states don't stand out on school days. The consistently highest-scoring states — Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Utah — all use the standard 180-day requirement. Kansas, which requires the most days (186), sits mid-pack on NAEP. Colorado, which requires the fewest (160), also sits mid-pack. The correlation essentially washes out.
What actually does predict state NAEP performance:
-Socioeconomic composition and child poverty rates (by far the largest factor)
-State proficiency standards and curriculum rigor
-How instructional time is used, not how much is mandated
-Teacher quality and per-pupil spending

What the research on time says. Kraft & Novicoff (Brown/Stanford) found that added instructional time does help, but only when paired with other interventions (tutoring, stronger staffing, targeted spending). So time is an input multiplier, not an independent driver. And state minimums are a floor, not a ceiling — districts often exceed them, which adds more noise to any state-level analysis.

Bottom line: if you regressed NAEP scores on required school days across the 50 states, you'd get a near-zero coefficient. Days-required is a weak policy lever; how the time is spent, and who's in the classroom, dominates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do wonder about the reading comp skills of the MCPS Central Office after looking at the MDSE info. It requires ending by Juneteenth, and either 6 built in makeup days if no virtual learning plan or 3 if a virtual learning plan is in place - TO BE ELIGiBLE FOR WAIVER of 180 days. So current 26-27 calendar ends by Juneteenth. MCPS has applied for virtual learning plan. They have 2 built in days before Juneteenth (3/9 and 6/17). They need 1 more built in day to be eligible for a waiver. This is SO simple. As many people have said ditch the transition day (or move only that day into the prior week) or cancel the Diwali day that is not Diwali. DONE. Nobody with camps, vacations or other important family time ore-planned in late Aug affected. Why are they thinking moving into the prior week is necessary or desirable at all? Do they just want to create chaos and upset everyone?

I encourage you (and others) to write to the board of ed with your thoughts and concerns, since they have to approve the final choice. Writing comments on the survey would also be good, but I assume that goes to mcps and they will summarize (or sanitize) results before presenting to the boe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do wonder about the reading comp skills of the MCPS Central Office after looking at the MDSE info. It requires ending by Juneteenth, and either 6 built in makeup days if no virtual learning plan or 3 if a virtual learning plan is in place - TO BE ELIGiBLE FOR WAIVER of 180 days. So current 26-27 calendar ends by Juneteenth. MCPS has applied for virtual learning plan. They have 2 built in days before Juneteenth (3/9 and 6/17). They need 1 more built in day to be eligible for a waiver. This is SO simple. As many people have said ditch the transition day (or move only that day into the prior week) or cancel the Diwali day that is not Diwali. DONE. Nobody with camps, vacations or other important family time ore-planned in late Aug affected. Why are they thinking moving into the prior week is necessary or desirable at all? Do they just want to create chaos and upset everyone?

I encourage you (and others) to write to the board of ed with your thoughts and concerns, since they have to approve the final choice. Writing comments on the survey would also be good, but I assume that goes to mcps and they will summarize (or sanitize) results before presenting to the boe.

✔️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why Taylor has proposed this. Just the proposal is causing needless stress. When he could just.
1. Cancel the transition day
2. Have school on November 9
3. Make Eid al Adha a make up day and tell the Muslim community they will try to get state law changed on Good Friday/Easter Monday so they can take it off nexttime

This 100% -- can YOU run for School Board?
I also approve changing the calendar permanently starting with 2027 to start earlier and end earlier, but this is not the year to make the change -- people need time to prepare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why Taylor has proposed this. Just the proposal is causing needless stress. When he could just.
1. Cancel the transition day
2. Have school on November 9
3. Make Eid al Adha a make up day and tell the Muslim community they will try to get state law changed on Good Friday/Easter Monday so they can take it off nexttime

This 100% -- can YOU run for School Board?
I also approve changing the calendar permanently starting with 2027 to start earlier and end earlier, but this is not the year to make the change -- people need time to prepare.

Ha ha sorry doesn't pay enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do wonder about the reading comp skills of the MCPS Central Office after looking at the MDSE info. It requires ending by Juneteenth, and either 6 built in makeup days if no virtual learning plan or 3 if a virtual learning plan is in place - TO BE ELIGiBLE FOR WAIVER of 180 days. So current 26-27 calendar ends by Juneteenth. MCPS has applied for virtual learning plan. They have 2 built in days before Juneteenth (3/9 and 6/17). They need 1 more built in day to be eligible for a waiver. This is SO simple. As many people have said ditch the transition day (or move only that day into the prior week) or cancel the Diwali day that is not Diwali. DONE. Nobody with camps, vacations or other important family time ore-planned in late Aug affected. Why are they thinking moving into the prior week is necessary or desirable at all? Do they just want to create chaos and upset everyone?

.

T. Taylor is all about continued chaos. He's using the media to put out his false message about what the State Board said in their resolution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2-3 days here or there make no difference to education. Kids are not being shortchanged by calendar changes. They’re being shortchanged by being addicted to cell phones and MCPS along with parents looking the other way. Y’all get riled up about the wrong things

That's your opinion. Many others would disagree. Massachusetts schedules 184 days a year and has among the highest performing states in terms of educational outcomes in the country.

You just want to take the lazy way out by blaming "cell phone addiction." And you're wrong, because there are a lot of little kids with no cell phones in MCPS who are still not achieving grade level standards.

MA is a wealthier state than MD. That accounts for the difference in their kids doing better on national tests. You think 1 extra day of school is making the difference? They also pay their teachers higher wages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2-3 days here or there make no difference to education. Kids are not being shortchanged by calendar changes. They’re being shortchanged by being addicted to cell phones and MCPS along with parents looking the other way. Y’all get riled up about the wrong things

That's your opinion. Many others would disagree. Massachusetts schedules 184 days a year and has among the highest performing states in terms of educational outcomes in the country.

You just want to take the lazy way out by blaming "cell phone addiction." And you're wrong, because there are a lot of little kids with no cell phones in MCPS who are still not achieving grade level standards.

Asked AI if there is a correlation between required school days by states and standardized test scores? Guess what the answer is...

Short answer: no meaningful correlation, and the main reason is that states barely differ on this variable.
The variance is tiny. About 27–31 states plus DC require exactly 180 days, and the overall range is only 160 (Colorado, lowest) to 186 (Kansas, highest). When ~60% of states sit on the same value, you don't have enough spread to drive a correlation with anything.
The top NAEP states don't stand out on school days. The consistently highest-scoring states — Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Utah — all use the standard 180-day requirement. Kansas, which requires the most days (186), sits mid-pack on NAEP. Colorado, which requires the fewest (160), also sits mid-pack. The correlation essentially washes out.
What actually does predict state NAEP performance:
-Socioeconomic composition and child poverty rates (by far the largest factor)
-State proficiency standards and curriculum rigor
-How instructional time is used, not how much is mandated
-Teacher quality and per-pupil spending

What the research on time says. Kraft & Novicoff (Brown/Stanford) found that added instructional time does help, but only when paired with other interventions (tutoring, stronger staffing, targeted spending). So time is an input multiplier, not an independent driver. And state minimums are a floor, not a ceiling — districts often exceed them, which adds more noise to any state-level analysis.

Bottom line: if you regressed NAEP scores on required school days across the 50 states, you'd get a near-zero coefficient. Days-required is a weak policy lever; how the time is spent, and who's in the classroom, dominates.

Oh wow--if AI says so--it must be true. I hope you're not teaching students with your high quality analytical skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that the kids should go back earlier. Unless you have a beach house or are a SAHP that last week of summer is tough to manage. I do not think the calendar should change for 2026 but it would be good to announce for 2027 now!

Uh, you do realize that if they start school a week earlier, the week before will still be hard to find camps. It will be no different than the current situation, just a week sooner.

+1 And you do realize that students all over the county go back to school in July, or early August or even in mid-August in Virginia--yet somehow people there don't lose their minds whining that summer has been ruined and that it will be impossible to go to camp or the beach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that the kids should go back earlier. Unless you have a beach house or are a SAHP that last week of summer is tough to manage. I do not think the calendar should change for 2026 but it would be good to announce for 2027 now!

Uh, you do realize that if they start school a week earlier, the week before will still be hard to find camps. It will be no different than the current situation, just a week sooner.

+1 And you do realize that students all over the county go back to school in July, or early August or even in mid-August in Virginia--yet somehow people there don't lose their minds whining that summer has been ruined and that it will be impossible to go to camp or the beach.

And yet none of those school systems are proposing changes on less than four months notice. 🤔