DCPS took away four half days at the end of the year, and they gave a lot of specious reasons, including parents needing child care and the need for more instruction. It turns out it was testing that they really cared about, and don't take my word for it; take the word of the memo they sent to the district principals.
Parents were little more than a prop to justify their manifestly disrespectful decisions, and teachers didn't even make it to that level. Nope, as usual, the driving force was testing, testing, and more testing because that's what, and perhaps all, the district really cares about.
So to give you some context, schools are supposed to test 95% of their students, but for whatever reasons, one being kids just refuse to take them, some kids miss the first go around. So it looks like students can make up tests until the last week, and giving them a few more hours in which to do so, was the paramount reason they ended those half days, which is manifestly short-sighted. How many more kids do they think they are going to capture, and was it worth throwing the staff under the best to get those handfuls? The answer is not many and sadly and apparently yes.
Finally this letter is just one more example that you can't take anything the district says seriously, you don't just need a grain of salt, you need an entire salt shaker.
Students are allowed to take an entire school day (typically covering 6 class hours) to complete a state test. In my experience, none of them do. Some do utilize additional time, but all are done by lunch. Most of them only take an additional 15 to 30 minutes.
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