Reply to Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

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Reply to "Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't know anyone who pays for care on days off.  The parents usually just trade using vacation days, telework if possible, use grandparents, or team up with friends.[/quote]

You know why they do that? Because finding child care on erratic, random days is very difficult.

The calendar is not good for students and their education and that's my main problem with it. I would actually PAY to have education be at the forefront of FCPS.  I have HS students so childcare is no longer a concern for me but both my husband and children find this calendar detrimental.  "It's been hard to lock in this year" is a refrain I hear a lot from my kids and their friends. We don't need all these days off to relax and sleep.

[/quote]

There it is again. The calendar is not good for students and their education.

PROVE IT. Where is the data that suggests that? Are there lower test scores? Lower overall GPAs? Are reading levels progressing slower? Lower SAT scores? Lower graduation rates? Where are the actual FACTS? Not your opinion or your anecdotal evidence based on your kid and their friends. Real hard data.

Because if you don’t have that you have nothing but your opinion and everyone knows what they say about opinions… [/quote]

You want actual data, not anecdotes. Multiple nonpartisan research groups - including Brown University, Stanford University, RAND, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, and UConn’s Neag School—have all found the same thing: when districts reduce or destabilize instructional time, student achievement drops.

• Brown University & Stanford University (EdWorkingPaper 22‑653, 2023–24)
“Lost instructional time has consistently negative effects on student achievement.”
https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai22-653

• Harvard Shorenstein Center – Journalist’s Resource (2025)
Peer‑reviewed studies show districts with reduced or inconsistent weekly schedules see lower test scores, *especially in math*
https://journalistsresource.org/education/four-day-school-week-research

• RAND Corporation (2023)
Irregular or shortened weekly schedules come with academic tradeoffs, including measurable declines in core subjects.
https://www.rand.org/blog/2023/04/the-four-day-school-week-are-the-pros-worth-the-cons.html

• UConn Neag School of Education / CEPARE (2024)
Fragmented or frequently altered schedules disrupt instructional continuity and harm learning.
https://education.uconn.edu/2024/01/03/around-the-block-evaluating-school-schedules

• American Psychological Association (2024)
Schedule structure - timing, consistency, predictability - has measurable effects on academic performance and attendance.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/08/schools-shift-later-start-times

So yes, there is data. And it’s remarkably consistent: When instructional time becomes irregular or fragmented, student outcomes decline. FCPS’s calendar fits the exact pattern the research warns about.[/quote]

You shouldn’t have done a trolls googling for her, it just feeds the need for attention (even negative attention is attention..) but thank you because i find the RAND study interesting.[/quote]

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