3 Student Days Off Proposed As Alternative To 16 Late Starts At LCPS
LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — After much of the public feedback about 16 late start dates expressed concerns, Loudoun County Public Schools officials unveiled a new option for professional development time to meet new state requirements.The new proposal shared at Tuesday's School Board meeting calls for three professional development days with no school for students in the 2024-2025 school year: Oct. 4, 2024; Nov. 4, 2024 and Jan. 28, 2025. The fourth proposed day — June 16, 2025 — falls after the last day of school on June 13, 2025.Changes to the upcoming school year's calendar were proposed to help LCPS meet the Virginia Literacy Act, which include up to 27 hours of required training modules for teachers. Other coming changes include the second year of the Virginia Language & Literacy Screening System, a new assessment for third grade and new kindergarten to second grade teachers, and new standards for the mathematics and English Standards of Learning standardized tests that teachers must instruct students in. The mathematics standards will apply to SOL assessments in the 2024-2025 school year, while the timeline for the English standards is pending."These changes and new initiatives will take a significant amount of staff time to learn and implement," said Ashley Ellis, chief academic officer for LCPS, at Tuesday's School Board meeting. This will require a significant amount of additional learning for most of our teachers. In addition to these new requirements coming from [Virginia Department of Education], educators have consistently shared that there is already not enough time in the teacher calendar devoted to the required and recommended professional learning teachers participate in."LCPS estimated a new third grade teacher could face up to 63 hours of training with the current and new requirements, while a returning fifth grade teacher would face 56 hours of required training. A new special education teacher would have up to 79.5 hours of required training. A returning middle school math teacher faces up to 32 hours of required training. The last proposal that was since been withdrawn called for 16 late start dates — Sept. 11, Sept. 18, Oct. 9, Oct. 23, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, Jan. 8, Jan. 15, Feb. 5, Feb. 12, March 5, March 26, April 9, March 23, May 14 and May 21."There was, as you know, an overwhelming negative response to the adjusted arrival days from all groups, and we needed to address that," said Ellis. "Child care and disruption to learning were the biggest examples of the potential negative impact on families."Early release days could pose the same challenges, as well as disruptions to lunch and after-school activities. Adding contractual days for teachers would come with increased costs. Because new training may not be available until September, completing all the requirements during summer wouldn't be possible. Some School Board members expressed support for the new proposal but were not scheduled to take a vote on Tuesday. Chair Melinda Mansfield of the Dulles District noted the public's feedback was heard while noting the state recommendation is for teachers to complete at least one training module per month."We are asking for broad systemic change that shifts the minds of educators, many of whom have strong beliefs about their methods, said Mansfield. "For teachers to make the necessary shifts they need some time to wrestle with and apply new concepts, and they need to see results in their students before they'll commit to sustaining new practices. This takes time and lots of practice, coaching and support."Leesburg District representative Lauren Shernoff, who has worked as a teacher, said she was "blown away by the feedback" after originally thinking the late starts were a good solution."I want to thank the community for their feedback because there was a lot that needed to be said that I certainly didn't see," said Shernoff. "I'm an educator that has been through this training — not the new training but all the other training, so I was surprised.""I know that a lot of the teachers, particularly those who have to teach and have children, young children, were very, very much impacted by the late start for their children when they had to go in early, so that's probably a good exchange for them to do a full day," said Catoctin District representative Kari LaBell. "I think this is a good option for everybody. As a former teacher, I really think it is."The four professional learning days are proposed as a one-time changed and are not expected in future years. The School Board could potentially take final action on the proposal on June 11.The article 3 Student Days Off Proposed As Alternative To 16 Late Starts At LCPS appeared first on Ashburn, VA Patch.
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