We had a good experience with the online exams last year and got scores in line with what we'd have expected in a regular year; this year they've had time to work out the glitches, so I have some hope it will go smoothly for most people. My kids are happy to take them online, particularly my very slow writer for whom being able to type is a big advantage. I was also very nervous, when we had our scare the other day when the place we signed up in the fall threatened to back out on us, that we'd end up finding somewhere that was only testing in person and not taking any covid precautions (which is not at all unusual around here) and I'd have decide whether to let my kids go sit in a crowded room for 3-4 hours with a bunch of kids with no masks (x3 for my older kid). Next year who knows? I think the earlier registration deadline could be a problem, because I can see schools being very reluctant to add more uncertainty by taking outside students. I would imagine by spring all high school students will have the opportunity to be vaccinated, but in fall things might still be very up in the air (this year they extended the registration deadline for homeschoolers, but no guarantees about next year). All of that said, we still plan on trying to do APs next year and hoping for the best. I'll have a 12th grader, so it won't be a big deal if he ends up not actually able to test since he'll have already done college applications (we use APs more as a way to show rigor than for college credit and consider college credit a nice bonus when they get it). And I'll have a 10th grader who can't do DE yet at the school he's planning on, so it's AP or nothing. And since he'll only be 10th grade he'll have more opportunities later on.

yeah, the way I put it to someone the other day was that it's one person saying, "I would just like for my kids to be able to go back to school a couple of times a week before the school year ends, wearing masks of course, as long as numbers keep staying low" and another saying, "well, my kids have been back in school full time with no masks since August, we've only shut down 4 times because of too many cases and quarantines, and only 2 teachers have quit and 3 have been hospitalized, so it's going great!"

It's very hard to have a nationwide conversation about schools because people's regional experiences are SO DIFFERENT right now. I think it's hard for people in places like CA to conceive of what's been going on in other parts of the country. I WORRY about my husband in his school district that's taking some precautions (though certainly not nearly all of the ones the CDC recommends), but I'm HORRIFIED by how teachers are being treated in other districts very near by. Which maybe is why I won't shut up about it. It's criminal. And I'm not talking about tiny rural counties, but large exurban districts with tens of thousands of students. The problem with not prioritizing teachers in places that have remained online, though, is that everyone wants those schools to reopen F2F and vaccinating teachers is how you get there.

Teachers in Florida where ktgrok is and in Georgia where I am and in many, many other places have been working in person since late summer/early fall. In much of my state, they've been doing it with no mask requirements and very few students wearing masks. The incidence rate for teachers in the counties with no mask mandates near me has often been as much as 8 or 9 times as high as for the general population of those counties. I certainly think grocery store employees should also be prioritized, but I am done with people pretending like there aren't many, many teachers who are and long have been at increased risk.

Good thread on twitter re: J&J: I have a couple of concerns about J&J--one is whether it prevents long term covid effects, given how often those are seen with mild disease. The other is whether it's less effective at preventing transmission to unvaccinated people than the others (it seems like it would be given that it's less effective at preventing symptomatic illness at all, but I don't know if there's any official word on it). In Georgia the governor has said that all of our J&J supply will be reserved for teachers, and honestly, this seems like the WORST population to vaccinate with J&J, given that they'll be in contact with tons and tons of unvaccinated people in the short to medium term. There are the transmission concerns and also the fact that even mild illness wreaks havoc on schools because of staffing issues. And, yeah, also the fact--as this twitter thread points out--that how hard TPTB are pushing it as being just as good kind of smells like "you don't need to wear a mask!" from back in the spring, and it erodes trust.

Update in first post--it's worked out now! Thanks to everyone for listening to me vent through my day of panic!

The superintendent is next on my list if I don't get a good answer from the woman at the assessment department (which I'm told is where the decision is coming from). I've been e-mailing him all year to complain about COVID stuff on my husband's behalf, so he might not be very receptive....on the other hand, maybe he'll be so glad I'm not e-mailing about COVID stuff this time that he'll want to give me whatever I want 😂. I'm willing to blather about it to whoever will listen, but time isn't on my side--if I can't get anywhere in the next couple of days I really need to start looking for an alternative before the homeschool registration deadline.

I certainly have my issues with the college board, but I've very much liked having AP exams (and subject tests. RIP) as an option. I know a lot of people prefer DE these days, and I do, too, for some things. But the subjects I feel competent to teach I want to actually TEACH at home, and AP exams have given us a way to do that and still get my kids ready to apply to selective colleges. ETA: and while there are legitimate criticisms about AP classes "teaching to the test" I've found the kind of skills and knowledge required by the exams to mostly be pretty solid.

The Crash Course on Macbeth is good (as are all the Crash Course lit videos). And Ian McKellan has a one man show from the 80s, I think, called Acting Shakespeare. It's not just Macbeth, but Macbeth features prominently, and it's excellent (he does a great job near the end, if I remember right, breaking down the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy)

I mentioned in another post that I contacted our state flagship about CLEP, and they told me unequivocally that they won't accept CLEP as a substitute for subject tests (they require proof of completion for core subjects); the counselor told me without subject tests our only option (besides DE or something else at an accredited school) was AP exams.

My husband just called after getting out of a meeting at his school about AP exams (same county as the one we're signed up in). He confirmed that they are offering exams both in person and online to their students, so there's no reason whatsoever for them not to let my kids test online.

I was prepared to have a hard time this year because of COVID, and I'd have understood if they told me back at the fall that they weren't letting anyone extra this year because of all the uncertainty. But it's just unacceptable to take my money and then suddenly pull the rug out from under me when there's no time to find anywhere else! But, yeah, my husband actually teaches at a school in this district, and they won't let my kids test either (even in non-covid years). It's maddening.

Thanks--I'll check it out! I also already have an e-mail into the very friendly private school principal who's taken my kids in the past. He said in the fall that their policy was no non-students in the building and he didn't know what it would be in spring....I'm hoping that either the policy has changed or he'll let them take them online. But I also very stubbornly want the place I've already paid to do what they agreed to do!

Yes--I told both my contact at the school and the person I e-mailed at the district that they're happy to take the exams online (my kids would probably prefer that, really). Waiting to hear back.

thank you 🙂 We may need to do that--I don't think any of the schools my junior is applying to will take them for credit, but it would at least show some evidence that he did the work. I had already e-mailed our state flagship after the announcement about subject tests ending to see if they'd take CLEP tests instead (they have a lot of hoops for homeschoolers to jump through to prove they've done college prep coursework), and they told me no 😞

Thanks! I just went back a little while ago and looked at my e-mail from you in the fall to see which school you had mentioned 🙂 I haven't yet--I'm still hoping I'll get results by taking this to the county level--but I will soon if not!

Well, yes I can. I've been angry about a lot over the past year. I registered my kids for (and paid for!) AP exams through a local high school back in September. I just this morning got a message from the woman I was in touch with that she just found out about a district policy that non-students can't test this year and needs to refund my money. I am LIVID. My 11th grader is supposed to take 3 exams this year. If we'd known there'd be a problem, he would have done more DE instead. As it is, they can't even do subject tests in place of AP exams anymore. I'm not going quietly; I have an e-mail in to the county saying they need to honor their agreement (and that we're happy to test online if covid concerns are the issue), but I don't feel like it's going to do any good. I have 8 days before the homeschool registration deadline, so I guess I can make begging every school in the state to take them my full time job for the next week. Have I mentioned that I'm SO MAD?! Update the next day: my husband called and talked to someone at the assessment department, and they are now all set to take the digital exams! They tried to tell him that they don't know yet if they're offering digital exams, but he told them he's a teacher in the same district and has been told to offer his students a choice of online or digital. Anyway, we're all set! The woman I had talked to at the high school called me and was very, very nice and says she's so relieved for us. So happy ending in this case, but the college board REALLY needs to fix this messy process!

We're planning to use ours as a downpayment on a new travel trailer, so it's like LOTS of vacations rolled into one! This summer we're hoping to be able to get to New England to finally see my in-laws, but my dream RV trip (summer 2022????) is Newfoundland.

Our governor in Georgia has announced that "to avoid confusion" we're no longer following the CDC guidelines about the vaccine rollout at all. He first opened it up to 1a and added in everyone over 65, their caregivers (with all the abuses of that loose designation that you'd expect), and first responders. Now he's adding in K-12 teachers (but not higher ed or other critical workers), adults with intellectual disabilities, and parents of children with "complex medical conditions" (no guidance yet about what that means). So some people who should be 1b but not all plus a small subset of what I think would be 1c? I'm so, so frustrated that he's ignoring the CDC guidelines in favor of this completely non-transparent process that seems to be based largely on which groups have lobbied his office hard enough. Not that any of these groups are unworthy of vaccines, but I hate that it's up the whims of each state, and in this case at least there's no clear explanation about why he thinks he knows more than the people at the CDC. We just drove to Alabama yesterday to get my (teacher) husband his shot. The announcement about expanding to teachers came after we made the appointment, but the earliest he'd be able to get an appointment under that would be more than a week later anyway. Right now I'm fully expecting to need to travel out of state myself when my turn comes; otherwise I might be waiting in line behind everyone who's left handed or who was born on a Wednesday or whatever other randomness they come up with next. One of the hardest things about the pandemic for me has been how everything is so uncertain and it's impossible to make plans...and living in a state where the impossible to predict vaccine phases are announced every few weeks in press conferences as if I'm waiting to find out if my favorite TV show is getting renewed or not is NOT HELPING. /rant

DH just had his first dose of Moderna. We drove to Alabama because they're vaccinating teachers and not limiting it to state residents. Teachers in Georgia are eligible starting March 8, but no telling how long it would take to get an appointment, so we stuck with the sure thing. He feels fine so far, but it's only been a couple of hours. He has an appointment for the second shot at the same place, but we may be able to find him one here and cancel that one.

We have two rewards cards and use them for everything that we can. We have an Amex Blue Cash Preferred that does 6% back on groceries up to a certain amount ($6000/yr, I believe) and then a Chase Sapphire that we use for most everything else--I love the Chase Sapphire, but it's more of a travel card (no foreign transaction fees, better rewards when you use it for travel). They both have annual fees, but we get several times more back than we pay. Chase Sapphire is running some weird promotion through April where you can get more for all your grocery and restaurant purchases--we had been saving points for over a year since we hadn't traveled much, and we just got a $750 credit on our last statement. Pay off the balances in full every month and all that. We've done cards occasionally for sign up bonuses (like a Delta skymiles card), but we don't very often. ETA: oh, and we have Amazon and Target cards for 5% back there.

DH wears a Happy Mask layered with a surgical mask at work (high school teacher). I do the same on the rare occasions that I'm inside and around other people. Outside stuff with other people around I wear a Sock Fancy mask. I keep thinking of getting KN95s for DH, but I'm not convinced they'd be any better than his Happy Masks + surgical masks combo and I don't think they'd be nearly as comfortable to wear 8 hours a day every day.

I've never really understood the argument that teachers need to shut up and get back to the (non-virtual) classroom because other people have been working in person the whole time. The fact that my husband has to go to school in person doesn't make me want all the people working at home to have to go to work in person, too--just the opposite--the more people who can stay home (and who actually DO stay home), the safer my husband is. There are some jobs that absolutely cannot be done remotely--not they can't be done as well, they just flat out can't be done. I don't think it's hypocritical to say that we should hesitate before sending thousands of people into a building together all day for school even though I don't believe that we should all literally starve to death so that no one has to go to work in person. We should do everything we can to make every job that has to be done in person as safe as it can possibly be. One of the ways we can make those jobs safer is by having as many people as possible work remotely. Whether schools opening F2F is worth the risks and what those risks are is a separate discussion. But certainly "teachers should have to go to work in person because other people have to" isn't a good argument.

My homeschooled son applied to Oberlin and was accepted with a very generous FA package (he went somewhere else), and he gets federal financial aid....Oberlin is, in our experience, plenty homeschooler friendly (I remember they did want slightly more than most schools in that they asked for some kind of portfolio--we put together a few papers, lab reports, etc. and called it good--but it wasn't anything arduous); I think this is just a disclaimer type thing letting you know it's not their fault if you don't get federal aid because you didn't follow the rules of your state (we're in Georgia, which has very few rules wrt homeschooling)

My son opted not to apply ED, primarily but not exclusively because we wanted to be able to compare financial aid packages. He applied mostly to needs-met schools, and there ended up being something like a $10,000-15,000/year spread in OOP cost between the best and worst packages, so I think it was the right decision. If he had had one absolute dream school, though, we might have let him go for it. We have some particular slightly unusual financial stuff that probably contributed to the disparity in the FA offers, but it's not really rare to have SOMETHING in your financial life that makes financial aid difficult to predict even at needs met schools, and even in the age of net price calculators. I have a friend whose first child applied ED to a needs met school and got a good FA package, so she was confident in letting her second also go the ED route at a different needs met school, only to be stunned by a much less generous FA package there. She is divorced, self-employed, and has a lot of home equity--all things that can make FA really tough to predict.