GradyGram | Week of July 20

IMPORTANT DATES

**GRADYGRAM SUBMISSIONS**
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This pandemic represents the most challenging time that many of us have lived through. Like all businesses and organizations, APS must rapidly adapt, make less than ideal trade-offs, and make decisions without all the information we’d otherwise demand. In light of current events, APS has made the decision to change a fundamental aspect of scheduling for our high schools, Grady among them.

When school starts on August 24, Grady students will move from a “4x8” schedule to a “4x4” schedule. This means that, rather than rotating between 8 classes each week, Grady students will have the same 4 classes each day for the entire first semester and then the remaining 4 classes each day for the second semester. By doing this, our students will complete an entire course in one semester.

For returning Grady students, this means that there are no longer A, B or C days. “A" days will now be first semester, “B" days will be second semester.

The 4 classes that students take August – December will be completed in December; the 4 classes taken second semester, from January - May 2021, will be completed in May.

Grades will be formally posted to transcripts every 9 weeks (October, December, March, and May) as opposed to every 18 weeks (December and May).

In concert with APS and our new superintendent, we have many decisions to make and details to flesh out. I commit to you that, as we learn and decide more, I will keep you updated via a variety of communication modes. I know the bullet points above represent just the basics. To expedite the sharing of information as we know it, please visit this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on our Grady website, which will be posted early this week. We will update this as new information is available and highlight what’s changed from week to week.

This decision is being made for all APS high schools based on research indicating what leads to the most successful virtual learning experiences and outcomes. Please also understand: No one believes this is a perfect solution; however I feel confident (and hope you will, too) that this is the best of many difficult and less-than-ideal options.

We cannot and we will not re-work student schedules. While we’ve gone to great lengths to respond to student and parents' preferences and requests in the past, we can't make changes in moving to a 4x4 schedule. Without going into detail, it’s simply not operationally feasible with 1500 students. Please do not begin emailing Mr. Vincent about individual student schedules and circumstances.

Last, many of you (teachers, students and parents) recently completed a survey about the effectiveness of last year’s virtual learning. This past Friday, an objective team who designed and analyzed the survey walked me through a comprehensive analysis of results and recommendations. The learnings sync up well with what APS is aggressively prioritizing. I can assure you, my team and I are laser-focused on systematically expanding our best practices, and addressing the areas in which we came up short. I will share the highlights and action plans with you soon.

Thank you for your patience, understanding and good will during what for all of us is a very challenging time.

Dr. Bockman
bbockman@atlanta.k12.ga.us

IMPORTANT DATES

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