The Fairfax County Public School system introduced new three hour early releases with the intent to give teachers more time to plan and complete work.
Though FCPS has good intentions, the new early release timeline does not benefit teachers or students because there is no opportunity to learn any new material or be productive.
With new schedule changes, there are fewer early releases this year in comparison to last year.
Additionally, contrary to previous years, students no longer receive an early release on the last day of each quarter, which is very inconvenient.
I found this change disappointing because the last week of the quarter is extremely stressful.
Before this year, I have always looked forward to getting out of school early after a week filled with assignments and tests.
Although FCPS added new early releases in order to give teachers more time to grade, it is not helpful if they do not schedule them for the end of a quarter.
As students receive more school work, teachers require additional time to grade.
But with new early release policies, teachers do not receive nearly enough time at the end of the quarter to finish grading assignments.
During a three hour early release day, FCPS limits each class to only 30 minutes.
With less time for learning, I do not find myself completing a lot of assignments, and most of my teachers do not introduce any new material.
During early release days, teachers often do not have any lesson plans and allow the class to go on their phones or do homework for other subjects.
I think it is completely pointless to come to school if you are not going to learn anything new.
Furthermore, during a three hour early release day there is no Learn for students to receive additional help from teachers or complete their unfinished assignments.
In my opinion, Learn is crucial to student success, especially towards the end of the quarter when school work piles up.
Students would benefit more from staying at home and getting the whole day off instead of coming to school for only four hours.
FCPS should either switch back to two hour early releases, or replace them with fewer days off.