The legislature may end up reverting the makeup days...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

There you are again. Ms. Parrot. 🦜 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

Yes, but what you’re not understanding is that you’re not speaking to rational people. You’re speaking to irrational, childish “parents” who want nothing more than to punish teachers and to make sure they aren’t getting anything the foot stomping parent doesn’t think they deserve. Oh, and their kids out of their house as much as possible. Their claims about “education,”
literacy,” “2/3 of kids behind in math blah blah blah” are just a smokescreen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

I agree. My kid in 4th grade during Covid worked much more diligiently than my high schooler.

That said, I think you see a divide here between parents of ES students and parents of HS students because the high schoolers have much greater need to stay on track with the learning. For one or two snow days, or even a week, I think it would be very feasible to have enrichment activities set aside for the ES kids. You could even send it home in the fall with a folder of material and instructions for what they should complete during the first, second, and third snowday. And it could be relatively low-key. First day-- read a book and write a book report. Second day-- work through some generic math worksheets that would review concepts they should already know but solidify mastery. And so on. Not wonderful, but better than just waiving the instruction as is being requested now. Plus it gives time for sledding.

By high school, the work assigned needs to match where they are in a particular curriculum. But this past Monday, every one of my kid's teachers emailed work and they rescheduled quizzes in ways that were annoying but didn't cause harm and got them back onto schedule by the end of the week. (Like one class started the next unit, and then went back to do a rescheduled quiz on the prior unit on the third day, and then resumed the next unit. Another had a quiz on wednesday and then a unit test on thursday. Not ideal. Kid complained but it wasn't an actual problem.

[Anonymous]

Has this been decided yet? When is the deadline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

There you are again. Ms. Parrot. 🦜 🙄

Is there some named Ms Parrot that you are trying to call out? Because more than one person is making points on this thread about kids being below grade level. -DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

Yes, but what you’re not understanding is that you’re not speaking to rational people. You’re speaking to irrational, childish “parents” who want nothing more than to punish teachers and to make sure they aren’t getting anything the foot stomping parent doesn’t think they deserve. Oh, and their kids out of their house as much as possible. Their claims about “education,”
literacy,” “2/3 of kids behind in math blah blah blah” are just a smokescreen.

If some of these same parents spent more time with their kids and worked with them, they might not be so behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

I agree. My kid in 4th grade during Covid worked much more diligiently than my high schooler.

That said, I think you see a divide here between parents of ES students and parents of HS students because the high schoolers have much greater need to stay on track with the learning. For one or two snow days, or even a week, I think it would be very feasible to have enrichment activities set aside for the ES kids. You could even send it home in the fall with a folder of material and instructions for what they should complete during the first, second, and third snowday. And it could be relatively low-key. First day-- read a book and write a book report. Second day-- work through some generic math worksheets that would review concepts they should already know but solidify mastery. And so on. Not wonderful, but better than just waiving the instruction as is being requested now. Plus it gives time for sledding.

By high school, the work assigned needs to match where they are in a particular curriculum. But this past Monday, every one of my kid's teachers emailed work and they rescheduled quizzes in ways that were annoying but didn't cause harm and got them back onto schedule by the end of the week. (Like one class started the next unit, and then went back to do a rescheduled quiz on the prior unit on the third day, and then resumed the next unit. Another had a quiz on wednesday and then a unit test on thursday. Not ideal. Kid complained but it wasn't an actual problem.

Most ES kids are going to have plenty of time for sledding and play but most parents who are complaining don't want to make the effort before or after school. Most HS kids aren't sledding and many still had their activities and assignments. My kids had multiple homework assignments from several teachers. The smarter teachers also sent messages to the parents to make sure we knew about the assignments to make sure they got done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

There you are again. Ms. Parrot. 🦜 🙄

Is there some named Ms Parrot that you are trying to call out? Because more than one person is making points on this thread about kids being below grade level. -DP

Its actually important and concerning and those who complain about a few days of virtual need to look at the bigger picture of in person isn't effective and that needs to be changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

Yes, but what you’re not understanding is that you’re not speaking to rational people. You’re speaking to irrational, childish “parents” who want nothing more than to punish teachers and to make sure they aren’t getting anything the foot stomping parent doesn’t think they deserve. Oh, and their kids out of their house as much as possible. Their claims about “education,”
literacy,” “2/3 of kids behind in math blah blah blah” are just a smokescreen.

If some of these same parents spent more time with their kids and worked with them, they might not be so behind.

These catty snide comments are not a good look for you. You just sound like you wish ill on people's kids.

MCPS has utterly failed at educating Black, Latino, and kids receiving FARMS. How have we sunk so low that the immediate response is "it's the parents' fault" when we know curricula are constantly changing with little attention paid to proper implementation and teachers are increasingly relying on screens and videos for things as simple as reading books to kids. As someone with a relatively high income with a kid who struggled in reading, I can tell you these disparities are not about bad parenting. They are because those of us with money and kids who are average academically quickly realize that MCPS instruction is not sufficient, so we pay $$ for tutors outside of school. It's insane how even in middle class neighborhoods nobody bats an eye when you say you hired a tutor, it is that common. I am not an educator, and I'm not qualified to fill in the gaping holes in the instruction in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starting a new threat from the thread on HB1084 with a few updates that are going to get missed otherwise:

The bill passed out of the MD House today and on to the Senate but was amended in some important ways --

The bill only allows MCPS the ability to reduce the number of days in school below 180 in the event of inclement weather (or other specific issues detailed in the legislation) and still requires them to plan a calendar with 180 minimum days. It also sets a floor at 175 days -- MCPS cannot go under 175 days.

I still think we need to push MCPS to better plan for snow days, but this is far better than the original text that would have given MCPS carte blanche to reduce the number of days in the year.

It needs to pass the Senate still but this would be retroactive meaning schools would end on June 18...

https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/amds/bil_0004/HB1084_51312501.pdf

Can you point to a link showing that the House is sending the version amended by second reading to the Senate? I see on Legiscan that the MD House passed it after second reading but I read elsewhere (MoCo show) there was to be a third reading in the House before moving to the Senate.

I think there's always a third reading before bills go to the other chamber, unless there's something different about emergency bills? But if they pass it on second reading there's no reason it wouldn't pass on third reading, so maybe that's what the person meant?

Thank you, that makes sense. And I see that they did do a 3rd reading and the House passed it with a unanimous vote and it's in the Senate now.

[Anonymous]

Could they do virtual for HS and MS and only add extra days for elementary? Why does it have to be a one size fits all approach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

DP. Having virtual instruction for a few days is nothing like the year that MCPS had it during COVID. And it would certainly be better than no school at all, particularly for secondary schools students. And the legislature is about to bail out MCPS and the union for bad planning, so the alternative is most assuredly no school at all.

[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:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

DP. Having virtual instruction for a few days is nothing like the year that MCPS had it during COVID. And it would certainly be better than no school at all, particularly for secondary schools students. And the legislature is about to bail out MCPS and the union for bad planning, so the alternative is most assuredly no school at all.

Right- hastily thrown together virtual classes with teachers and students who haven't done it recently, if ever, is going to be worse. The impact will be less only because it's just for a few days, but the classes themselves will be awful. Either they do nothing, in which case it's worthless, or they teach something, harming the kids who aren't able to meaningfully participate.

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Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

This has nothing to do with rewarding staff and they are two seperate issues. Its ironic people are saying virtual isn't effective, for a few days, when you look at these scores and how they've declined over the last 15 or so years. MCPS and the BOE need to be held accountable. The county council needs to stop heavily funding a failing school system.

They’re not separate issues in that the end outcome this year (and last year) is that MCPS staff gets more vacation/snow days instead of providing instructional time, and educational outcomes are abysmal.

I would be fine with virtual learning for snow emergencies, but I’m just a parent. If McPS refuses to submit the virtual learning plan for weather to the state of Maryland the way other Maryland districts and the BoE won’t hold them accountable for what they promised to do in 2024-not sure what will help ensure that our students don’t get shortchanged instructional time and continue to fall further behind.

The only bright side to this legislation is that it greatly reduces the chance that MCPS would try to adopt virtual days.

You sound dim. I would much rather my child have virtual days of education rather than the current status quo of losing 5 school days this year.

I'm not happy about losing 5 days either, but virtual days are worse than nothing.

Show us the evidence that virtual learning has worse outcomes than providing no instruction at all. Because all you have is an opinion, and not a particularly informed one at that.

+1 This just sounds like MCPS staff who would rather just pocket their 5 extra snow days of vacation than ever be asked to teach during a day with inclement weather.

I'm sure they don't mind, but that's not the driving factor. The parents of high schoolers here are forgetting that younger kids exist. There's no good way to do virtual at the elementary level. Yes, some districts do it anyway, but most don't.

The parents of high schoolers here had elementary schoolers during covid so we actually know what we are talking about, unlike parents of kindergartners who had babies at the time. Virtual isn’t ideal for K and 1st, but for 2-5 it is totally possible to deliver instruction.

Interesting how you put it. Yes, from covid we know it is possible to "deliver instruction." But is it effective for most students? Certainly not.

I think it’s pretty effective for most students, actually. I think people object because it can be inconvenient for parents of young kids who are trying to simultaneously work and they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and it’s not great for an entire year, which is not what we are discussing. For what we are trying to accomplish (keep kids learning, keep on pace with covering material), it is a good if imperfect tool and solution to the problem of extended weather closures. I’m exhausted with people letting perfect be the enemy of the good.