Good luck to all students taking state exams and finals this week and next week.

[Buzz Rules]

 

[tvguy]

Up here school starts on Aug 28th. They will be off for Columbus/Indigenous People's day and Veteran's Day, 3-5 days at Thanksgiving (depends on the town). Winter break is Dec.22-Jan 2. One day off for MLK day, winter break is 2/16-2/20. There is a 4 day weekend in March for teacher workshops. In April vacation will be the 20th-24th, and they will have Memorial day off in May. Graduations are scheduled for June 7-14, depending on the school system, with the last day of school being June 15-18.

So Presidents day week off appears to be called Winter Break.

 

[AppleDumpling]

We have always had regents and non regents diplomas in the Hudson Valley. How are they being phased out? I haven't heard anything. I think the regents help NY academically to be honest.

I don’t know the details, haven’t had a child in school in a decade, but have several teacher friends and family members. I believe the local diploma (non-Regents) has been an option primarily for students with disabilities/IEPs. NY has always had high standards for education and some think that eliminating the Regents exams will lower them, which is the basis of the controversy.

Oh, now I see. Interesting. I was told my regents grades helped my application for college. I'm glad to see most will still be offered as an option.

Did you go to a SUNY school? They would likely be the only ones considering Regents grades for admission.

 

[RangerPooh]

Locally state exams were in mid/late April, and finals the middle of May. Schools been out since May 22. For seniors the last week of April, first week of May.

 

[Smugpugmug]

The last day of school in my area was today. I'm seeing a lot of bars and breweries in my area giving half off drink specials or some sort of discount to teachers which is pretty cool.

 

[Buzz Rules]

I don’t know the details, haven’t had a child in school in a decade, but have several teacher friends and family members. I believe the local diploma (non-Regents) has been an option primarily for students with disabilities/IEPs.

Students in my area had the option for non regents/general diploma, regents diploma, and regents diploma with honors.

NY has always had high standards for education and some think that eliminating the Regents exams will lower them, which is the basis of the controversy.

It will.

Did you go to a SUNY school? They would likely be the only ones considering Regents grades for admission.

Private NY college.

 

[barkley]

We have always had regents and non regents diplomas in the Hudson Valley. How are they being phased out? I haven't heard anything. I think the regents help NY academically to be honest.

Students in my area had the option for non regents/general diploma, regents diploma, and regents diploma with honors.

so curious here-what is 'regents' and what kind of difference does it make vs. a traditional diploma?

 

[Buzz Rules]

so curious here-what is 'regents' and what kind of difference does it make vs. a traditional diploma?

Regents exams are the standardized testing given to high school students in specific subjects starting in freshman year. A regents diploma (meaning you passed the required exams) is a higher level diploma then a standard high school diploma. The regents diploma with honors is for students who pass additional tests before graduation. An 85 or better (at least when I was in school) was, from what I was told, was considered mastery in the subject matter. I believe Texas, Florida, California, and Massachusetts all have state requirements too. The general diploma at my school was seen as equivalent to a GED.

Barrons (exam prep company) has study guides we often used to prepare for the exams. The standardized testing makes a NY education (in good school districts) seen as a more impactful and rigorous education compared to lower ranked education systems in other states.

 

[barkley]

Regents exams are the standardized testing given to high school students in specific subjects starting in freshman year. A regents diploma (meaning you passed the required exams) is a higher level diploma then a standard high school diploma. The regents diploma with honors is for students who pass additional tests before graduation. An 85 or better (at least when I was in school) was, from what I was told, was considered mastery in the subject matter. I believe Texas, Florida, California, and Massachusetts all have state requirements too. The general diploma at my school was seen as equivalent to a GED.

Barrons (exam prep company) has study guides we often used to prepare for the exams. The standardized testing makes a NY education (in good school districts) seen as a more impactful and rigorous education compared to lower ranked education systems in other states.

interesting how different states operate. when I went in the stone age in California we had no tests/only one kind of diploma, when my kids went (most recent was '15 grad) in Washington State they had testing but it was still only one kind of diploma. I understand that testing in Washington was eliminated in 2020. in both cases you could take some AP classes but it had no impact on your diploma (just showed on your transcript), in my kid's case they could have opted to take all their Jr./Sr. coursework through one of the State colleges or Universities (on the district's dime) for dual credit but again nothing different would show on their diploma. i'm thinking everything here is pretty much transcript driven (and the district we live in does not even give kids an option on a 'track' so far as classes go anymore-a year or so after my youngest graduated they decided to go further in exceeding the State requirements and adopted graduation requirements to 'meet or exceed recommended courses for highly selective Colleges and Universities').

 

[leebee]

So Presidents day week off appears to be called Winter Break.

Yup... February vacation (winter break) starts with President's Day. Our April break includes around Patriot's Day (April 19), although most states don't consider that a holiday anymore. I think only Maine and Massachusetts recognize it.

 

[Giraffe_Zen]

some have been out for ages already here-graduation season kicked off may 9th and the last of the high school and college commencements was June 7th. summer session at one of the locals started back on may 18th

I would be surprised that any high school would be going this late in the year b/c most colleges have a much earlier cut-off for grades/transcripts to be submitted (I know of a school district that did'nt take that into consideration when they tweaked the entire district's calendar and wanted all the schools to align with their newly adopted non traditional system-caused a world of trouble for the seniors that year and the district had to change the system for all the middle and high schools the following year).

Up here in NE our school let out this week.

 

[barkley]

Yup... February vacation (winter break) starts with President's Day. Our April break includes around Patriot's Day (April 19), although most states don't consider that a holiday anymore. I think only Maine and Massachusetts recognize it.

I was curious so I looked at our district's calendar-

start 8/28
federal holidays off
2 days for thanksgiving
2 weeks for christmas
1 week for spring
2 days built in in case of snow days (if not used then days off)
graduation 6/6 but all others attend until 6/10

 

[mjkacmom]

So Presidents day week off appears to be called Winter Break.

That week was always called presidents week here.

 

[RedAngie]

HS graduation for my district is tonight. Tomorrow is the last day for the rest of HS, junior high, and elementary. Apparently Juneteenth is not a school holiday.

When my DDs attended, they took their state exams about two weeks before the end of the term.

 

[tvguy]

That week was always called presidents week here.

As I recall they started taking that week off here about 2000, instead of just one day. I was on the Little League Board of Directors and that week was one of the final practice weeks before the season started the first part of March. We had angry parents wanting us to ban team practices that week because their kids were going on vacation (many to Disneyland). We decided not to ban practices, but to tell coaches they could not penalize players who did not show up for practice that week,.