MCPS School Year Extended by One Day to June 17; Final Three Days of the School Year Now Early Release Days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS families want a 10 week summer. If people here were okay with a 9 week summer, we could have full days towards the end of the year.

Keep in mind that high schoolers (especially 10th and 11th graders who are taking lots of AP classes) are doing very little after AP exams are finished.

I have family in Loudoun county, and this is what their school district does.

No one has ever asked me how long of a break is desirable.

I know plenty of families that would be fine with a 9-week summer.

It is MCPS, not families, that insists on the longer summer break.

They have surveyed families on starting school two weeks before Labor Day, and that option is very unpopular.

MCPS loves to hide behind online surveys. They can make the right decision but lack moral courage, and our kids are suffering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I would prefer starting earlier in August and ending earlier in June. It would give more prep time for AP classes

+1 A lot of the schools in the South have that. It gives the kids there an advantage for AP classes. But no one in MCPS has ever surveyed me about when I want to start the school year for as long as I've been here, so not sure how they've come to the conclusion it's "unpopular."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I would prefer starting earlier in August and ending earlier in June. It would give more prep time for AP classes

+1 A lot of the schools in the South have that. It gives the kids there an advantage for AP classes. But no one in MCPS has ever surveyed me about when I want to start the school year for as long as I've been here, so not sure how they've come to the conclusion it's "unpopular."

I would prefer this as a parent as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I would prefer starting earlier in August and ending earlier in June. It would give more prep time for AP classes

+1 A lot of the schools in the South have that. It gives the kids there an advantage for AP classes. But no one in MCPS has ever surveyed me about when I want to start the school year for as long as I've been here, so not sure how they've come to the conclusion it's "unpopular."

That was part of the last calendar survey they sent out. You must have missed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I would prefer starting earlier in August and ending earlier in June. It would give more prep time for AP classes

+1 A lot of the schools in the South have that. It gives the kids there an advantage for AP classes. But no one in MCPS has ever surveyed me about when I want to start the school year for as long as I've been here, so not sure how they've come to the conclusion it's "unpopular."

For at least the last three years, they have sent out numerous emails asking people to take calendar surveys, usually in the October/November timeframe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I would prefer starting earlier in August and ending earlier in June. It would give more prep time for AP classes

+1 A lot of the schools in the South have that. It gives the kids there an advantage for AP classes. But no one in MCPS has ever surveyed me about when I want to start the school year for as long as I've been here, so not sure how they've come to the conclusion it's "unpopular."

They’ve sent calendar surveys the last few years. Starting a week earlier is deeply unpopular, especially among most teachers who have a preservice week the week prior. I personally think the limited number of students benefitting by the tiny advantage on AP exams gained by starting a week earlier is not worth all students and staff losing a week of summer break in August. The juice is not worth the squeeze.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By adding 3 half days at the end of the year when seniors are done, AP tests are long over, and camps will have begun, it's basically a big F** to the State (for not waiving) 2 days!

It’s a big FU at the parents. They could have cancelled one of the professional development days after the snow days…

No it’s not. If anything, the only people who really need to go Monday and Tuesday are teachers and they already sorta knew that when the year was previously extended to the Monday. If you need childcare coverage those half days, send your kid. If you don’t or it’s easier for you to arrange full day coverage elsewhere, don’t send them. If you want to travel that week, they’ve all but given their blessing to proceed with previously made plans. There will not be teaching and learning those days whether you send your kids or not. If you’re looking for childcare ideas there will be lots of 14/15 year olds who are kind of too old for camp but too young for jobs who would probably happily babysit your kids in the afternoon for some Apple cash.

This isn't about childcare coverage you dismissive fool, it's about wanting kids to learn. 180 days a year is already less than what other countries provide their elementary/secondary students, and we lose so much of it with this half day garbage, testing for MAP, MCAP, in-school days when teachers are grading and turn on videos etc...

+1 honestly how can people not see the connection between all this and our disgraceful literacy rates. I guess y'all are too busy blaming immigrants for your failures.

So your contention is that if our school year had been originally scheduled at 184 days, and we didn’t have to make up any snow days, we’d have higher literacy rates? If that’s not your point, then stop proclaiming that other people don’t get the connection between your much broader argument about school calendars in general, just because they’re commenting specifically on the days recently added to *MCPS’s 2024-2025 school year*.

. Many posters are clearly advocating for less instructional time, and against being required to spend time educating children. Disgusting .

The argument isn’t that we have too much instructional time and should decrease it; the argument is that tacking on two days at the end doesn’t actually allow for making up instructional time that was lost months earlier. Teachers had to rush through material and move on back in January and February. By June 13th, they’ve covered all the material. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing more that can be taught — but it does mean that whatever they could attempt to teach at that point isn’t part of the curriculum, so it would just be two days of ad hoc lessons for the few kids who show up. It’s not going to move the needle on kids’ academic progress.

So to review with the current calendar and this year's snow days you had to "rush" to cover material. And you don't see any value to adding time to the school year because not every student will show up and each teacher will have to decide what to cover.

Do you not see then that MCPS needs to build more school days into the calendar in order to:
- meet the state requirement
- cover all the material and
- have students present to learn the material?

Afaik teachers haven't advocated for this though.

So zero sympathy.

I’m the pp you’re replying to. I’m just a parent, not a teacher or an MCPS employee. I was explaining why tacking days onto the end of the year, after the entire curriculum has been covered, doesn’t make up for lost instructional time from months earlier. I have long advocated both starting school earlier in August and building more than 2 snow days into the calendar.

But just as some of us would prefer to start earlier, others strongly oppose an earlier start. There isn’t universal agreement on when to start, how long summer break should be, which religious holidays should not be instructional days, etc. I don’t think teachers are a monolith; I’m sure they also have different calendar preferences. However, I seriously doubt most of them prefer tacking on makeup days to the end of the school year over having more of them built into the calendar.

You’re just being argumentative and targeting teachers. They don’t propose or approve the calendar. They didn’t choose the minimum number of mandated instructional days. They didn’t impose the requirements for assessments. They are subject to a rigid framework. Most of them would love more flexibility to tinker with lesson plans to suit their students’ needs.

In other words, MCPS is incapable of making the decisions that are best for kids because the adults are too whiny.

What you call whiny, I’d call a lack of consensus among stakeholders, but that’s just one of the confounding factors. They also have to take into consideration state mandated holidays, required assessments, employment contracts, employee morale and retention, budget constraints, likelihood of inclement weather.

[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:By adding 3 half days at the end of the year when seniors are done, AP tests are long over, and camps will have begun, it's basically a big F** to the State (for not waiving) 2 days!

It’s a big FU at the parents. They could have cancelled one of the professional development days after the snow days…

No it’s not. If anything, the only people who really need to go Monday and Tuesday are teachers and they already sorta knew that when the year was previously extended to the Monday. If you need childcare coverage those half days, send your kid. If you don’t or it’s easier for you to arrange full day coverage elsewhere, don’t send them. If you want to travel that week, they’ve all but given their blessing to proceed with previously made plans. There will not be teaching and learning those days whether you send your kids or not. If you’re looking for childcare ideas there will be lots of 14/15 year olds who are kind of too old for camp but too young for jobs who would probably happily babysit your kids in the afternoon for some Apple cash.

This isn't about childcare coverage you dismissive fool, it's about wanting kids to learn. 180 days a year is already less than what other countries provide their elementary/secondary students, and we lose so much of it with this half day garbage, testing for MAP, MCAP, in-school days when teachers are grading and turn on videos etc...

+1 honestly how can people not see the connection between all this and our disgraceful literacy rates. I guess y'all are too busy blaming immigrants for your failures.

So your contention is that if our school year had been originally scheduled at 184 days, and we didn’t have to make up any snow days, we’d have higher literacy rates? If that’s not your point, then stop proclaiming that other people don’t get the connection between your much broader argument about school calendars in general, just because they’re commenting specifically on the days recently added to *MCPS’s 2024-2025 school year*.

. Many posters are clearly advocating for less instructional time, and against being required to spend time educating children. Disgusting .

The argument isn’t that we have too much instructional time and should decrease it; the argument is that tacking on two days at the end doesn’t actually allow for making up instructional time that was lost months earlier. Teachers had to rush through material and move on back in January and February. By June 13th, they’ve covered all the material. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing more that can be taught — but it does mean that whatever they could attempt to teach at that point isn’t part of the curriculum, so it would just be two days of ad hoc lessons for the few kids who show up. It’s not going to move the needle on kids’ academic progress.

So to review with the current calendar and this year's snow days you had to "rush" to cover material. And you don't see any value to adding time to the school year because not every student will show up and each teacher will have to decide what to cover.

Do you not see then that MCPS needs to build more school days into the calendar in order to:
- meet the state requirement
- cover all the material and
- have students present to learn the material?

Afaik teachers haven't advocated for this though.

So zero sympathy.

I’m the pp you’re replying to. I’m just a parent, not a teacher or an MCPS employee. I was explaining why tacking days onto the end of the year, after the entire curriculum has been covered, doesn’t make up for lost instructional time from months earlier. I have long advocated both starting school earlier in August and building more than 2 snow days into the calendar.

But just as some of us would prefer to start earlier, others strongly oppose an earlier start. There isn’t universal agreement on when to start, how long summer break should be, which religious holidays should not be instructional days, etc. I don’t think teachers are a monolith; I’m sure they also have different calendar preferences. However, I seriously doubt most of them prefer tacking on makeup days to the end of the school year over having more of them built into the calendar.

You’re just being argumentative and targeting teachers. They don’t propose or approve the calendar. They didn’t choose the minimum number of mandated instructional days. They didn’t impose the requirements for assessments. They are subject to a rigid framework. Most of them would love more flexibility to tinker with lesson plans to suit their students’ needs.

In other words, MCPS is incapable of making the decisions that are best for kids because the adults are too whiny.

What you call whiny, I’d call a lack of consensus among stakeholders, but that’s just one of the confounding factors. They also have to take into consideration state mandated holidays, required assessments, employment contracts, employee morale and retention, budget constraints, likelihood of inclement weather.

As well as the land mine presented by religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

This doesn't need to be such drama every year. Do what many other school districts with snow do. Add a certain number of days to the school year for calendar. If you need to use them at the end of the year due to weather, you do, if not, school ends early.

Then you don't get parents whining that they've already paid for Larla's camp or teacher's complaining that the days cut into their summer job schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't need to be such drama every year. Do what many other school districts with snow do. Add a certain number of days to the school year for calendar. If you need to use them at the end of the year due to weather, you do, if not, school ends early.

Then you don't get parents whining that they've already paid for Larla's camp or teacher's complaining that the days cut into their summer job schedule.

I'm pretty sure there would still be parents complaining if school ended earlier than planned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't need to be such drama every year. Do what many other school districts with snow do. Add a certain number of days to the school year for calendar. If you need to use them at the end of the year due to weather, you do, if not, school ends early.

Then you don't get parents whining that they've already paid for Larla's camp or teacher's complaining that the days cut into their summer job schedule.

I'm pretty sure there would still be parents complaining if school ended earlier than planned.

My kids are in high school. Most of the years they’ve been in MCPS, we had more than 2 extra days built in. When we had a planned 184 day school year and didn’t use all 4 extra days, school didn’t end early.

Back in 2016, we had 5 or 6 consecutive snow days because we got 30” of snowfall from one storm, and maybe a couple other isolated snow days. MCPS applied for a waiver because we had so many days to make up. The state granted it, but not for all of the days. Back then, spring break was Good Friday through the Friday after Easter. At the time, it was standard for MCPS’s website to say that makeup days would be added to the end of the year if needed — except they didn’t add all of the makeup days to the end. They clawed back 1 or 2 days from the end of Spring break. People were extremely unhappy about that. Kids in families who already had vacation plans for that week didn’t attend.

There will never be a shortage of things to complain about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't need to be such drama every year. Do what many other school districts with snow do. Add a certain number of days to the school year for calendar. If you need to use them at the end of the year due to weather, you do, if not, school ends early.

Then you don't get parents whining that they've already paid for Larla's camp or teacher's complaining that the days cut into their summer job schedule.

I'm pretty sure there would still be parents complaining if school ended earlier than planned.

My kids are in high school. Most of the years they’ve been in MCPS, we had more than 2 extra days built in. When we had a planned 184 day school year and didn’t use all 4 extra days, school didn’t end early.

Back in 2016, we had 5 or 6 consecutive snow days because we got 30” of snowfall from one storm, and maybe a couple other isolated snow days. MCPS applied for a waiver because we had so many days to make up. The state granted it, but not for all of the days. Back then, spring break was Good Friday through the Friday after Easter. At the time, it was standard for MCPS’s website to say that makeup days would be added to the end of the year if needed — except they didn’t add all of the makeup days to the end. They clawed back 1 or 2 days from the end of Spring break. People were extremely unhappy about that. Kids in families who already had vacation plans for that week didn’t attend.

There will never be a shortage of things to complain about.

Touching spring break is a mistake

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS families want a 10 week summer. If people here were okay with a 9 week summer, we could have full days towards the end of the year.

Keep in mind that high schoolers (especially 10th and 11th graders who are taking lots of AP classes) are doing very little after AP exams are finished.

I have family in Loudoun county, and this is what their school district does.

No one has ever asked me how long of a break is desirable.

I know plenty of families that would be fine with a 9-week summer.

It is MCPS, not families, that insists on the longer summer break.

They have surveyed families on starting school two weeks before Labor Day, and that option is very unpopular.

MCPS loves to hide behind online surveys. They can make the right decision but lack moral courage, and our kids are suffering.

I understand this is slightly different but there is no research to support that year round schooling is beneficial. I can’t imagine a few extra days would make any measurable difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn't need to be such drama every year. Do what many other school districts with snow do. Add a certain number of days to the school year for calendar. If you need to use them at the end of the year due to weather, you do, if not, school ends early.

Then you don't get parents whining that they've already paid for Larla's camp or teacher's complaining that the days cut into their summer job schedule.

I'm pretty sure there would still be parents complaining if school ended earlier than planned.

My kids are in high school. Most of the years they’ve been in MCPS, we had more than 2 extra days built in. When we had a planned 184 day school year and didn’t use all 4 extra days, school didn’t end early.

Back in 2016, we had 5 or 6 consecutive snow days because we got 30” of snowfall from one storm, and maybe a couple other isolated snow days. MCPS applied for a waiver because we had so many days to make up. The state granted it, but not for all of the days. Back then, spring break was Good Friday through the Friday after Easter. At the time, it was standard for MCPS’s website to say that makeup days would be added to the end of the year if needed — except they didn’t add all of the makeup days to the end. They clawed back 1 or 2 days from the end of Spring break. People were extremely unhappy about that. Kids in families who already had vacation plans for that week didn’t attend.

There will never be a shortage of things to complain about.

Touching spring break is a mistake

Yes. Anything but that. Still remember that from my own teen years, the horror.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I would prefer starting earlier in August and ending earlier in June. It would give more prep time for AP classes

+1 A lot of the schools in the South have that. It gives the kids there an advantage for AP classes. But no one in MCPS has ever surveyed me about when I want to start the school year for as long as I've been here, so not sure how they've come to the conclusion it's "unpopular."

Southern schools start earlier in August but are done by the third week in August.