Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Our school is telling us no freshman and sophomores can go to Thursday/Friday Dallas days because Texas EOC testing is early the next week. Anyone else having such a problem?

TIA

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

I'm sure someone from Texas will have a better answer than this, but we have had similar conflicts with state testing for our students in Colorado. We have been able to arrange a make up day for our students in the past 3 years. I expect there is something similar in Texas.

-matto-

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

I looked at the Dallas ISD testing calendar and couldn't find any mandated testing on those days. I'm not sure if mandatory state level testing is also mandated to occur on the same days, or if districts can adjust within themselves.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

This is Rockwall ISD.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

This is the first I've heard of a shook restricting travel due to testing that starts after the end of the event. What concerns does the school have with allowing the students to travel when they won't miss the test?

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Preparation I reckon, seems weird to me too!

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

If I had to guess I'd say it's the assumption (baseless or not) that students perform better on tests when they are well rested, well fed/hydrated, and relaxed (i.e. - not in incredibly stressful evironments) in the days prior to the test. Pretty much the opposite of an FRC event :)

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Those very words are in the instructions to parents on the district web site! :)

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Sorry Keith, I misread your original post. I was just giving the info for DISD as a reference point, but I've never heard of not allowing students to travel PRIOR to a test week.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

I know that certain 624 students actually missed taking the TAKS test back in 2013 due to a regional and Katy ISD (or whoever's in charge) allowed them to take it on the makeup date.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Keith, so sorry you are dealing with this. I looked into our testing schedule and the states and saw English 1 is scheduled for Tuesday March 29th, no high school exams scheduled for Wednesday, and English 2 scheduled for Thursday March 30th.

I just talked to our district and they do not have any problems with this, so maybe that can help you out?

Our plan for Dallas this year was to only take a small crew on Thursday anyway just to reduce the number of days students were missing. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

For us the issue is that it falls on Easter weekend....we are still trying to figure out what to do also.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

We didn't compete at Lone Star because of Easter weekend last year.

OKC and Dallas are both Easter weekend, and Hub City is week 5 right before Lone Star.

We are planning to do Bayou and Lone Star this year. We were hoping to mix things up a bit but the schedule didn't allow for it.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Looks like Dallas won't work for us this year... dang it we _really_ like Dallas Regional.

Looks like we're doing Alamo - Week 2... then Bayou - Week 3 (Spring Break)... then Hub City/Lubbock - Week 5.

--Michael Blake

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

We are running into a similar problem because Dallas and OKC fall on Easter Weekend. We plan on going to Bayou/Lubbock and Houston. Really sad to be leaving the Dallas Regional this year!

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Thanks all for the advice and support. We went back with a plan to not take freshman and sophomores on Thursday and the district approved. But it turns out they approved because Friday is good Friday and there is no school - arghh.

So now we have to canvas the parents for objections to competing over Easter weekend.

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

Easter Weekend is TOUGH to overcome in Texas... and _righteously_ so.

--Michael Blake

Re: Dallas 2015 Scheduling Issues
 

I may be able to help clarify the reasoning behind not wanting students to travel the week before testing because my district does the same thing.

If you have never seen the questions on the STAAR exams the majority of them are application based. Students have to figure out what the question is asking, weed out the extraneous information, and then determine how to find the answer. This is part of the reason the state decided to drop the number of required tests from 15 to 5 (that and we were spending almost 9 weeks of the school year testing). Add to this that STAAR results can prevent a student from graduating. You can understand why districts take STAAR so seriously.

During the week prior to testing classes spend the majority of the time doing refresher work. Some of the material on the test is covered at the beginning of the semester and teenagers (no offense :p ) have an incredibly short attention span. Students who take modified tests (for dyslexia, special needs etc.) are pulled out of class and participate in small-group or one-on-one tutoring. This really isn't much different than colleges who have 'dead week' prior to final exams. While no one on your team may meet any of the criteria it is much easier for the district/campus to create a blanket rule and enforce it across the board for all students rather than make exceptions here and there. Exceptions can set a bad precedence if they are not careful.

As far as Easter competition...the only regional my team has ever participated in (we really need to branch out ;) ) has been Lone Star and this is the first time in what seems like years when it wasn't on Easter or Spring Break and you have no idea how happy I am about it! :D