COVID-19

[MTV<=>Operator]

Is it just me... or does anybody else think a lot of these measures aren't helping because they only address the future?

Although not really what's happening, this half-tongue-in-cheek dialogue seems to summarize the mood of school districts and universities:
Mon: "Coronavirus is looking pretty bad, better switch to online classes for March."
Tues: "It's getting worse. We should cancel April classes too and move online."
Wed: "The nationwide cases grew by 100 today. Let's cancel graduation just for good measure."
Thur: "The nationwide cases grew by another 100 today. Let's also cancel June summer school and study abroad for good measure."
Fri: "Cases still grew by 100 today. We're going to cancel July summer programs too just to be even more safe."
Sat: "Uh-oh, today cases grew by another 100. Don't worry, we're already brainstorming for what we'll do in August."

I strongly support canceling in-person classes, but can our current data really extrapolate to August? These "countermeasures" are so reactive that they have little real power—the only work done is imaginary work fancied by the minds of university administrators, because July and August cancellations don't really change the present.

Meanwhile, proactive countermeasures to protect students right now are ignored. For college students, the same administrators who made the decisions above are also responsible for decisions like "please return back to campus within the next XYZ hours so that you can move your stuff out of dorms." I'm fortunate that UNC gave a move-out deadline of the end of the semester, but some universities gave their students only 48 hours to pack and leave. Given how crowded my residence hall was during move-in, I'm sure move-out would have been horrible for social distancing if move-out happened in just 48 hours.

They did mention something about anti-plagiarism software, so I'm assuming the AP English and History tests will still have writing portions.
Also no circuits on the AP physics A test

I don't think AP English and History exams ever get scanned by plagiarism checkers because they're all handwritten, and even with OCR that'd be a cumbersome task. I believe the antiplagiarism software (Turnitin) is only used for AP Capstone.

rip physics A

That's true. I just thought in the case that the essays would have to be typed, they would use some software to make sure students weren't just copying out of a review book or something.

Also, Update: apparently the AP Physics A test is going to be all free response. They mentioned on the website that students would be able to upload pictures of their work, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to have thousands of students uploading pictures at the same time.

[knightmoves]

Is it just me... or does anybody else think a lot of these measures aren't helping because they only address the future?

Mean incubation time for COVID-19 is a bit more than 5 days. In other words, you don't start to see the effect of whatever measure you implemented until a week afterwards, and it really takes closer to two weeks before you're sure what effect you're having.

[gz839918]

Is it just me... or does anybody else think a lot of these measures aren't helping because they only address the future?

Mean incubation time for COVID-19 is a bit more than 5 days. In other words, you don't start to see the effect of whatever measure you implemented until a week afterwards, and it really takes closer to two weeks before you're sure what effect you're having.

That is true, but August is a lot further in the future than 5 days (or even two weeks).

[SilverBreeze]

Is it just me... or does anybody else think a lot of these measures aren't helping because they only address the future?

Mean incubation time for COVID-19 is a bit more than 5 days. In other words, you don't start to see the effect of whatever measure you implemented until a week afterwards, and it really takes closer to two weeks before you're sure what effect you're having.

That is true, but August is a lot further in the future than 5 days (or even two weeks).

I agree that canceling from now until August isn't the best way to flatten the curve in the short-term future, but I'm not sure university administrators have many other courses of action. Cancelling courses is arguably the most drastic course of action they can take besides educating the public and researching cures/vaccines. Hopefully longer cancellation will help flatten the curve, but if this dies down sooner than anticipated, there's always the hope that they will decide to host it again... (not the most likely, I know, but still a slim chance)

[jaspattack]

May 2020 IB exams have been cancelled... that's an interesting turn of events. If IB can't have it their way, I suppose they'd just prefer to not have it at all.

[smayya337]

The governor of Virginia closed every school for the rest of the school year. We went from "school will be open tomorrow" to "school is closed tomorrow" to "school is closed through the end of the quarter" to "school is closed for the rest of the year" in the span of less than two weeks... Absolutely insane.

[LittleMissNyan]

The governor of Virginia closed every school for the rest of the school year. We went from "school will be open tomorrow" to "school is closed tomorrow" to "school is closed through the end of the quarter" to "school is closed for the rest of the year" in the span of less than two weeks... Absolutely insane.

ashirkjskskqfkrj excuse me what

[jimmy-bond]

The governor of Virginia closed every school for the rest of the school year. We went from "school will be open tomorrow" to "school is closed tomorrow" to "school is closed through the end of the quarter" to "school is closed for the rest of the year" in the span of less than two weeks... Absolutely insane.

Those are some drastic measures. And I thought Hawaii's timeline was bad.
3/13: 3rd quarter ends, spring break starts; 3/18: Spring break extended 3 and a half weeks to 4/7; 3/23: Shelter in place order until 4/30, public schooling is not considered an "essential business" so students must stay home, too.
I remember my teachers joking in three of my classes on the last day about work when we get back "IF we get back" and I shrugged it off as if it wasn't a possibility. Good times.

[Richard323]

My Stuyvesant High School, like everyone else in New York, is closed until April 16

[sneepity]

My Stuyvesant High School, like everyone else in New York, is closed until April 16

I am in NY too, but my school is closed until April 15.