Baltimore County Students Used as a Pawn In Hogan/Franchot's Terrible Plan to Force MD Schools To Open After Labor Day - Entrepreneur Generations

Baltimore County's new policy that they close schools the night before if the heat index is going to be too hot the next day is nothing but a political ploy to offer Larry Hogan and Peter Franchot an excuse to issue an executive order that school be mandated to start after Labor Day.

Seriously.

I've taught in hot classrooms for years and understand that it is not good for students or for teachers. However, I believe the prudent policy is to dismiss once a temperature has reached an agreed threshold, not to cancel school based upon a forecast. For Baltimore City Public Schools, that threshold has been if the temperature were 90 degrees by 11am, then dismissal would happen. This policy was never official, as far as I know, and during Dr. Alonso's tenure, he clarified that it wasn't an official policy. Still, sometimes schools are let out 2.5 hours early if the heat becomes too unbearable, such as a couple of days last September.

Baltimore County's decision to cancel school in non-air conditioned buildings if the forecast will have a heat index over 90 degrees strikes me as using the schools as pawns in the Franchot/Hogan game of chicken with Baltimore County Schools in order to force them to put temporary window air-conditioners. Even on hot days, schools can be fine in the mornings. It's at least good to check in with teachers. Tomorrow, it's set to be 90 degrees, according to Weather.com. It is supposed to be 72 degrees at 7am, when students are traveling to school. 74 degrees at 8am, when most schools start. By 10am, it will be 80 degrees. In the middle of the day, from 12-3, the heat will reach its apex, at around 85-88 degrees, with a heat index reaching 93 degrees at 3pm, when school dismisses.

Even under the old Baltimore City policy, this day likely would not have been given an early release, although I would not be opposed to that. But a full day cancellation? That seems like overkill. This is Baltimore County Public Schools' second cancellation because of heat.

The heat index is set to be 87 degrees at 11am, which is below the district's stated policy that 90 degree heat index at 11am will result in cancellation. However, I think the district is smarting from criticisms on Thursday for not canceling, and, also, it is facing pressure from politicians.

And now Hogan and Franchot are set for a big announcement about the starting date of public schools in Maryland this week, and our only conclusion is that Hogan will issue an executive order forcing all public schools to start after Labor Day. Franchot has plenty to say about this on his Facebook page, of course, lending fuel to his fire. (And by the way, where has there ever been this concentration of politicians on Baltimore City Public Schools? We've also been without a/c for years and years.)

I've been passionate about the Labor Day issue for a long time -- see here. In that blog post, I argue that no state should have a "one-size-fits-all" law forcing schools to start after a certain date, that schools districts should have flexibility to construct a calendar that best works for their students. This is why every school district in Maryland is against this change to force schools to open after Labor Day.

Forcing a school district to start after a certain date is the last thing we should be doing with education, as the academic year should be one that is more flexible, not more rigid. I'm a proponent of year-round school with more breaks, which I know would work better with our more poor and disadvantaged communities of students, students who suffer from the "summer slide" more than their richer counterparts. But even without full-year school, a school year that starts after Labor Day goes longer into the summer, without any benefit of weather; the month of August and the month of June have roughly the same temperature, but, let me tell you, getting kids to concentrate in June vs. August/September, there's just no comparison; the kids aren't tired from months of heat now. They learn better now at the start of the year.

Also, as an instructor of a high-stakes testing course, International Baccalaureate, it's terrible to me that my students will now get a week less of instruction than students in different states. This is the same for IB, the same for SAT, the same for PARCC, the same for ACT. These national (and even international) exams don't care if states make silly laws forcing schools to open later; their test dates remain the same.

When Hogan and Franchot make this rotten announcement this week, know that the students of Baltimore County Public Schools have been made into pawns of a political game of chicken, and that now all the students of the state will suffer. And this is another example of politicians engaging in educational policy and doing a disservice to students.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/2bv3wwH Baltimore County Students Used as a Pawn In Hogan/Franchot's Terrible Plan to Force MD Schools To Open After Labor Day - Entrepreneur Generations

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