SAT day time wasters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD senior went to school at about 1 pm for classes (which have a block period) and then play rehearsal. She slept in and just hung out until time to go to school. DD freshman at a different HS was unofficially encouraged by teachers to stay home I’ll day bc each class would only be 20 min each, and no one was planning to teach anything.

Exhibit D, y'all. Keep 'em coming!

[Anonymous]

If you play a sport you can not be absent or miss a practice the day before games. I think the Spring season starts for everyone Thursday. So if your SAT day is tomorrow and you play a Spring sport, you have to show up at least late and go to practice to play in the Thursday games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is going to stay home and study for their AP exam.

That's what mine did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school was going to keep kids in the theater all morning for an activity. My daughter stayed home. We dropped her off at noon for her first class, and she said that there is nobody in her classes today.

I don’t understand why you even sent her to school at all? That’s on you

Because it was her understanding that there would be classes in the afternoon and she did not want an unexcused absence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school was going to keep kids in the theater all morning for an activity. My daughter stayed home. We dropped her off at noon for her first class, and she said that there is nobody in her classes today.

I don’t understand why you even sent her to school at all? That’s on you

Because it was her understanding that there would be classes in the afternoon and she did not want an unexcused absence.

Right! Your daughter isn’t wrong. And she doesn’t want unexcused absences because MCPS says, “every day matters!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, stuff like this really gets at the heart of why chronic absenteeism is the problem that it is in MCPS.

To accommodate "free SAT testing" for MCPS juniors, we've disrupted and lost a whole instructional day for three other grade levels. The substitute activities range from somewhat worthy (Mock AP exams for those taking AP classes) to unworthy (unstructured "study halls" that kids just nap or play games in).

Because the schools know that these substitute activities are a joke, they informally tell students and parents that their kids can either stay home for the testing portion of the day or stay home altogether, since even the abbreviated classes that do happen aren't likely to cover critical material on what is essentially a half-day.

We should go back to SAT testing happening outside of the normal school day. I'm not convinced the juice of offering it for free to everyone is worth the squeeze.

Completely agree. I'm sure I took the SAT on a Saturday. Vouchers for students who can't pay the fee is something I would get behind. Dragging the entire school down over it is yet another example of how progressive ideas are just lowering the bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, stuff like this really gets at the heart of why chronic absenteeism is the problem that it is in MCPS.

To accommodate "free SAT testing" for MCPS juniors, we've disrupted and lost a whole instructional day for three other grade levels. The substitute activities range from somewhat worthy (Mock AP exams for those taking AP classes) to unworthy (unstructured "study halls" that kids just nap or play games in).

Because the schools know that these substitute activities are a joke, they informally tell students and parents that their kids can either stay home for the testing portion of the day or stay home altogether, since even the abbreviated classes that do happen aren't likely to cover critical material on what is essentially a half-day.

We should go back to SAT testing happening outside of the normal school day. I'm not convinced the juice of offering it for free to everyone is worth the squeeze.

That ain't it.

But it is. The inconsistency and incongruity in MCPS message tells kids the truth. You can't on the one hand, in BS messaging like this insist that every day of school attendance counts and matters:

And then informally tell students and families that they should skip school on testing days like this.

You are completely off. Kids understand the importance of SAT. Kids understand nuance unlike you who can only think in black and white

You'd better take a look elsewhere in the thread. Exhibits B and C might be of interest to you.

Students and families have definitely internalized the message that they don't HAVE to be in school every day and a big reason for that is the mixed messaging from school-based admin and staff.

Central Office spends thousands of dollars developign communications and messaging that crows, "Kids need to be in school EVERY day! Every day matters!"

Meanwhile, school-based staff and admin wink behind their backs and whisper discreetly, "Well, not EVERY day...."

And that's fine. But someone should tell MCPS CO communications to shut up about insisting kids need to be in school every day to be successful.

You are acting like MCPS has full control about attendance policies, but the inconsistency actually rolls down from state policies and actual legislation. At least one court case eliminated firm policies around truancy (a petite single mom asked the judge how exactly she was supposed to “force” her football player sized 15 year-old to go to school and stay there.) The legal age of mandatory attendance was raised from 16 to 18 in 2015. So now there are a bunch of teens who don’t want to be in school that are chronically absent instead of dropping out and going to work. The state just changed language around grading that removed all connection to attendance, which prompted the recent similar changes to MCPS’ policy. And yet a significant part of the state’s ratings for schools is chronic absenteeism (regardless of reason). Schools have to work to lower their absenteeism rates and have reporting requirements around it, yet it really isn’t in their control.

Fun fact - I have 10% of my HS 11th graders kicking off spring break 2 days early because their families made travel plans “a while ago”. So much for the big project they were supposed to present on Thursday. Thanks for screwing up planning for after break since now I have to carve out time from class for you to do what you should’ve been here for.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why aren't they being given a zero?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is your mcps school wasting your students time this week?
My freshman will be in career fairs insteas of using the time to meet with teachers or make up assignments.

Why should the school avoid planning something interesting because your kid can't do their missing assignments in their free time?

Schools shouldn't be in the business of doing "interesting " time wasters. School is for academics. A study strategy workshop would be better than this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school was going to keep kids in the theater all morning for an activity. My daughter stayed home. We dropped her off at noon for her first class, and she said that there is nobody in her classes today.

I don’t understand why you even sent her to school at all? That’s on you

Because it was her understanding that there would be classes in the afternoon and she did not want an unexcused absence.

Unless they’re piling up like firewood, unexcused absences don’t matter.

[Anonymous]

My 10th grader is home today after hearing that her afternoon classes were not planning any academic work, and after another teacher said they would probably get more done at home than coming in (that teacher said her own kids were planning to stay home). My kid is putting together their AP test study plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, stuff like this really gets at the heart of why chronic absenteeism is the problem that it is in MCPS.

To accommodate "free SAT testing" for MCPS juniors, we've disrupted and lost a whole instructional day for three other grade levels. The substitute activities range from somewhat worthy (Mock AP exams for those taking AP classes) to unworthy (unstructured "study halls" that kids just nap or play games in).

Because the schools know that these substitute activities are a joke, they informally tell students and parents that their kids can either stay home for the testing portion of the day or stay home altogether, since even the abbreviated classes that do happen aren't likely to cover critical material on what is essentially a half-day.

We should go back to SAT testing happening outside of the normal school day. I'm not convinced the juice of offering it for free to everyone is worth the squeeze.

That ain't it.

But it is. The inconsistency and incongruity in MCPS message tells kids the truth. You can't on the one hand, in BS messaging like this insist that every day of school attendance counts and matters:

And then informally tell students and families that they should skip school on testing days like this.

You are completely off. Kids understand the importance of SAT. Kids understand nuance unlike you who can only think in black and white

You'd better take a look elsewhere in the thread. Exhibits B and C might be of interest to you.

Students and families have definitely internalized the message that they don't HAVE to be in school every day and a big reason for that is the mixed messaging from school-based admin and staff.

Central Office spends thousands of dollars developign communications and messaging that crows, "Kids need to be in school EVERY day! Every day matters!"

Meanwhile, school-based staff and admin wink behind their backs and whisper discreetly, "Well, not EVERY day...."

And that's fine. But someone should tell MCPS CO communications to shut up about insisting kids need to be in school every day to be successful.

You are acting like MCPS has full control about attendance policies, but the inconsistency actually rolls down from state policies and actual legislation. At least one court case eliminated firm policies around truancy (a petite single mom asked the judge how exactly she was supposed to “force” her football player sized 15 year-old to go to school and stay there.) The legal age of mandatory attendance was raised from 16 to 18 in 2015. So now there are a bunch of teens who don’t want to be in school that are chronically absent instead of dropping out and going to work. The state just changed language around grading that removed all connection to attendance, which prompted the recent similar changes to MCPS’ policy. And yet a significant part of the state’s ratings for schools is chronic absenteeism (regardless of reason). Schools have to work to lower their absenteeism rates and have reporting requirements around it, yet it really isn’t in their control.

Fun fact - I have 10% of my HS 11th graders kicking off spring break 2 days early because their families made travel plans “a while ago”. So much for the big project they were supposed to present on Thursday. Thanks for screwing up planning for after break since now I have to carve out time from class for you to do what you should’ve been here for.

And are you not allowed to give them zeros? Time races on... I teach AP classes and I don't play with stuff like this. Let Mom see the natural consequences...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, stuff like this really gets at the heart of why chronic absenteeism is the problem that it is in MCPS.

To accommodate "free SAT testing" for MCPS juniors, we've disrupted and lost a whole instructional day for three other grade levels. The substitute activities range from somewhat worthy (Mock AP exams for those taking AP classes) to unworthy (unstructured "study halls" that kids just nap or play games in).

Because the schools know that these substitute activities are a joke, they informally tell students and parents that their kids can either stay home for the testing portion of the day or stay home altogether, since even the abbreviated classes that do happen aren't likely to cover critical material on what is essentially a half-day.

We should go back to SAT testing happening outside of the normal school day. I'm not convinced the juice of offering it for free to everyone is worth the squeeze.

That ain't it.

But it is. The inconsistency and incongruity in MCPS message tells kids the truth. You can't on the one hand, in BS messaging like this insist that every day of school attendance counts and matters:

And then informally tell students and families that they should skip school on testing days like this.

You are completely off. Kids understand the importance of SAT. Kids understand nuance unlike you who can only think in black and white

You'd better take a look elsewhere in the thread. Exhibits B and C might be of interest to you.

Students and families have definitely internalized the message that they don't HAVE to be in school every day and a big reason for that is the mixed messaging from school-based admin and staff.

Central Office spends thousands of dollars developign communications and messaging that crows, "Kids need to be in school EVERY day! Every day matters!"

Meanwhile, school-based staff and admin wink behind their backs and whisper discreetly, "Well, not EVERY day...."

And that's fine. But someone should tell MCPS CO communications to shut up about insisting kids need to be in school every day to be successful.

You are acting like MCPS has full control about attendance policies, but the inconsistency actually rolls down from state policies and actual legislation. At least one court case eliminated firm policies around truancy (a petite single mom asked the judge how exactly she was supposed to “force” her football player sized 15 year-old to go to school and stay there.) The legal age of mandatory attendance was raised from 16 to 18 in 2015. So now there are a bunch of teens who don’t want to be in school that are chronically absent instead of dropping out and going to work. The state just changed language around grading that removed all connection to attendance, which prompted the recent similar changes to MCPS’ policy. And yet a significant part of the state’s ratings for schools is chronic absenteeism (regardless of reason). Schools have to work to lower their absenteeism rates and have reporting requirements around it, yet it really isn’t in their control.

Fun fact - I have 10% of my HS 11th graders kicking off spring break 2 days early because their families made travel plans “a while ago”. So much for the big project they were supposed to present on Thursday. Thanks for screwing up planning for after break since now I have to carve out time from class for you to do what you should’ve been here for.

And are you not allowed to give them zeros? Time races on... I teach AP classes and I don't play with stuff like this. Let Mom see the natural consequences...

My understanding based on the revisions is that they get a Z for missed or not turned in assignments and only at the end of the marking period, after students have been given the opportunity to complete the missing assignments, can those Zs be turned into zeroes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 10th grader is home today after hearing that her afternoon classes were not planning any academic work, and after another teacher said they would probably get more done at home than coming in (that teacher said her own kids were planning to stay home). My kid is putting together their AP test study plan.

Why are her teachers not doing academic work the day AFTER SAT Day?

[Anonymous]

My senior stayed home to finish papers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is your mcps school wasting your students time this week?
My freshman will be in career fairs insteas of using the time to meet with teachers or make up assignments.

They can't meet with their teachers, because most are proctoring or on duty supporting the test integrity.