How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s time to implement year round school. Shorter breaks so that retention is less impacted, ability to schedule holidays, less disruption if there are weather delays/closures.

People will initially scream that kids need long summer breaks for swim team, internships, camps etc. And then just like with Covid, people will adjust to the new normal.

You'd have to raise pay for teachers and all school staff by at least 30%. Taxpayers are not going to go for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

No one here needs to do your googling for you. If you’re curious, just take a quick look at the relationship between declining household, income, and academic outputs. If you create a greater financial burden on students families, you lower their outcomes. This has been settled science since the 60s.

Conversely, show the academic benefit to a schedule like this?

To be clear, I never stated that their is an academic benefit. There are just countless people complaining that it is hurtful. Where is the actual proof of that besides their emotions and feelings?

The college acceptance rates, graduation rates, SOL scores, SAT scores, etc get released near the end of this year... we will both be able to see if the schedule is beneficial or hurtful.

Lower income= worse outcomes. Settled science.

So taxing hourly workers hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in order to make sure we spend five days out at Memorial Day is, yes,
bad for students. Like so many things, it is especially bad for low income students, for whom the trade-offs are on things like healthcare, housing, and food and so who are more likely to have been left home unsupervised this year.

This is a mute argument.

There is also settled science that shows time with friends, time with family, etc increase students mental health Better mental health = better outcomes. Settled science.

There is only one way to know which of the two (lower income = worse outcomes vs mental health = better outcomes) outweighs they other and that is: academic data.

FCPS is only concerned with what is good or bad for student's academically, that has been clear for decades. Neither one of us has the academic data available to prove our points, one way or the other.

As stated, we will see at the end of the year when the data is released, if the schedule truly has a detrimental effect on students as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It's been proven by many years of research that young kids do best academically and otherwise with a predictable, consistent schedule. They wake at the same time, arrive at school at the same time, and have the same learning routine consistently. This is how information is best reinforced and retained. My 3rd grader doesn't know if she's coming or going, constantly asking if there is school every day this week or not, or if she gets to come home early this day. It's disruptive to them psychologically and a barrier to learning at their best.

There is actually a substantial amount of studies coming out that refute this. That flexible schedules and less of a consistent routine may be of more benefit to learners. Most of the current studies have been done on college and secondary students, but I'd assume more will be done to gauge the effect on younger learners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

No one here needs to do your googling for you. If you’re curious, just take a quick look at the relationship between declining household, income, and academic outputs. If you create a greater financial burden on students families, you lower their outcomes. This has been settled science since the 60s.

Conversely, show the academic benefit to a schedule like this?

To be clear, I never stated that their is an academic benefit. There are just countless people complaining that it is hurtful. Where is the actual proof of that besides their emotions and feelings?

The college acceptance rates, graduation rates, SOL scores, SAT scores, etc get released near the end of this year... we will both be able to see if the schedule is beneficial or hurtful.

Lower income= worse outcomes. Settled science.

So taxing hourly workers hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in order to make sure we spend five days out at Memorial Day is, yes,
bad for students. Like so many things, it is especially bad for low income students, for whom the trade-offs are on things like healthcare, housing, and food and so who are more likely to have been left home unsupervised this year.

This is a mute argument.

There is also settled science that shows time with friends, time with family, etc increase students mental health Better mental health = better outcomes. Settled science.

There is only one way to know which of the two (lower income = worse outcomes vs mental health = better outcomes) outweighs they other and that is: academic data.

FCPS is only concerned with what is good or bad for student's academically, that has been clear for decades. Neither one of us has the academic data available to prove our points, one way or the other.

As stated, we will see at the end of the year when the data is released, if the schedule truly has a detrimental effect on students as a whole.

This isn’t true. Data was clear about COVID academic impacts and FCPS doubled down on staying closed after teachers were vaccinated.

Also the word you’re looking for is “moot” not “mute”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

No one here needs to do your googling for you. If you’re curious, just take a quick look at the relationship between declining household, income, and academic outputs. If you create a greater financial burden on students families, you lower their outcomes. This has been settled science since the 60s.

Conversely, show the academic benefit to a schedule like this?

To be clear, I never stated that their is an academic benefit. There are just countless people complaining that it is hurtful. Where is the actual proof of that besides their emotions and feelings?

The college acceptance rates, graduation rates, SOL scores, SAT scores, etc get released near the end of this year... we will both be able to see if the schedule is beneficial or hurtful.

Lower income= worse outcomes. Settled science.

So taxing hourly workers hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in order to make sure we spend five days out at Memorial Day is, yes,
bad for students. Like so many things, it is especially bad for low income students, for whom the trade-offs are on things like healthcare, housing, and food and so who are more likely to have been left home unsupervised this year.

This is a mute argument.

There is also settled science that shows time with friends, time with family, etc increase students mental health Better mental health = better outcomes. Settled science.

There is only one way to know which of the two (lower income = worse outcomes vs mental health = better outcomes) outweighs they other and that is: academic data.

FCPS is only concerned with what is good or bad for student's academically, that has been clear for decades. Neither one of us has the academic data available to prove our points, one way or the other.

As stated, we will see at the end of the year when the data is released, if the schedule truly has a detrimental effect on students as a whole.

Moot, honey. Bless your heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

The internet troll you’re responding to doesn’t have to listen to you. They’re here to convince you you’re fringe (which you aren’t) and hopefully dissuade you from doing anything.

Call/write your actual elected officials. They meet *tomorrow*. They are the ones who are required to listen to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

Teens, so high school? Your student's high school is pulling them out of electives to provide them compensatory services during their elective periods? Which school is this? Also, who is providing the compensatory services? Teachers? Teachers legally can not do this during their planning or ILT time due to the CBA.

That is a very interesting statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

I’m sorry you didn’t teach your children resilience. That is an important life skill.

My kid basically taught herself the AP material for two classes during Covid. Sure, there were virtual classes but she essentially was self-directed. Most kids in AP classes are like that, or should be, since it is college level material and most learning takes place outside the lectures.

It sounds like your kids need their hands held more than most? I am sorry about that, but you’re still wildly in the minority about this, even if you think yelling loudly and being intransigent might give a different impression (it won’t).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It's been proven by many years of research that young kids do best academically and otherwise with a predictable, consistent schedule. They wake at the same time, arrive at school at the same time, and have the same learning routine consistently. This is how information is best reinforced and retained. My 3rd grader doesn't know if she's coming or going, constantly asking if there is school every day this week or not, or if she gets to come home early this day. It's disruptive to them psychologically and a barrier to learning at their best.

There is actually a substantial amount of studies coming out that refute this. That flexible schedules and less of a consistent routine may be of more benefit to learners. Most of the current studies have been done on college and secondary students, but I'd assume more will be done to gauge the effect on younger learners.

I would bet money that "flexible schedule" was NOT defined in those studies as a bunch of days off including some that were unplanned. Flexible schedule in education research usually means you can get the work done on your own time as long as it's done by a certain date. Any study on college students, who are much more self-regulated learners, has zero generalizability to young elementary students.

I would not assume there will be more research on this in much younger kids because most school districts do not have a ridiculous calendar like ours. And any research that is done will probably be flawed and lacking in rigor just like a lot of other education research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

I’m sorry you didn’t teach your children resilience. That is an important life skill.

My kid basically taught herself the AP material for two classes during Covid. Sure, there were virtual classes but she essentially was self-directed. Most kids in AP classes are like that, or should be, since it is college level material and most learning takes place outside the lectures.

It sounds like your kids need their hands held more than most? I am sorry about that, but you’re still wildly in the minority about this, even if you think yelling loudly and being intransigent might give a different impression (it won’t).

Keep watching for narrative like this. The effort is

1. Shift blame
2. Shame
3. Delay/stall
4. Dissuade

If you see posters doing this, think about what action of yours they’re trying to influence and what narrative they’re trying to push. Consider the above as a case study— who benefits if you internalize the “resilience” narrative? Is it your kids? Is it their classmates?

If not…what do you think the motivation for the post is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It's been proven by many years of research that young kids do best academically and otherwise with a predictable, consistent schedule. They wake at the same time, arrive at school at the same time, and have the same learning routine consistently. This is how information is best reinforced and retained. My 3rd grader doesn't know if she's coming or going, constantly asking if there is school every day this week or not, or if she gets to come home early this day. It's disruptive to them psychologically and a barrier to learning at their best.

There is actually a substantial amount of studies coming out that refute this. That flexible schedules and less of a consistent routine may be of more benefit to learners. Most of the current studies have been done on college and secondary students, but I'd assume more will be done to gauge the effect on younger learners.

I would bet money that "flexible schedule" was NOT defined in those studies as a bunch of days off including some that were unplanned. Flexible schedule in education research usually means you can get the work done on your own time as long as it's done by a certain date. Any study on college students, who are much more self-regulated learners, has zero generalizability to young elementary students.

I would not assume there will be more research on this in much younger kids because most school districts do not have a ridiculous calendar like ours. And any research that is done will probably be flawed and lacking in rigor just like a lot of other education research.

The research wasn’t shared here because it doesn’t exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It's been proven by many years of research that young kids do best academically and otherwise with a predictable, consistent schedule. They wake at the same time, arrive at school at the same time, and have the same learning routine consistently. This is how information is best reinforced and retained. My 3rd grader doesn't know if she's coming or going, constantly asking if there is school every day this week or not, or if she gets to come home early this day. It's disruptive to them psychologically and a barrier to learning at their best.

There is actually a substantial amount of studies coming out that refute this. That flexible schedules and less of a consistent routine may be of more benefit to learners. Most of the current studies have been done on college and secondary students, but I'd assume more will be done to gauge the effect on younger learners.

I would bet money that "flexible schedule" was NOT defined in those studies as a bunch of days off including some that were unplanned. Flexible schedule in education research usually means you can get the work done on your own time as long as it's done by a certain date. Any study on college students, who are much more self-regulated learners, has zero generalizability to young elementary students.

I would not assume there will be more research on this in much younger kids because most school districts do not have a ridiculous calendar like ours. And any research that is done will probably be flawed and lacking in rigor just like a lot of other education research.

The research wasn’t shared here because it doesn’t exist.

Thankfully, Google does!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

I’m sorry you didn’t teach your children resilience. That is an important life skill.

My kid basically taught herself the AP material for two classes during Covid. Sure, there were virtual classes but she essentially was self-directed. Most kids in AP classes are like that, or should be, since it is college level material and most learning takes place outside the lectures.

It sounds like your kids need their hands held more than most? I am sorry about that, but you’re still wildly in the minority about this, even if you think yelling loudly and being intransigent might give a different impression (it won’t).

You don't know anything about my kids. My kids are not wildly in the minority and I know you're just trying to rage bait us because you're a troll. A deluded troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

I’m sorry you didn’t teach your children resilience. That is an important life skill.

My kid basically taught herself the AP material for two classes during Covid. Sure, there were virtual classes but she essentially was self-directed. Most kids in AP classes are like that, or should be, since it is college level material and most learning takes place outside the lectures.

It sounds like your kids need their hands held more than most? I am sorry about that, [b]but you’re still wildly in the minority about this, even if you think yelling loudly and being intransigent might give a different impression (it won’t).

On what data are you basing this statement? There are none because the FCPS survey was not designed to measure this. You also seem to be forgetting that high school parents are outnumbered by parents of elementary schoolers. Their opinions and experiences matter too.

You come off as very smug and like someone who always has to be right. I am sure these traits really endear people to you in real life.