Gary McCready’s Board of Education Press Release as submitted to the Leader on   3/17/2005, with italicized notations.

 

 

The heart of any school district is the curriculum it develops, and Westfield should be proud of the quality of what is taught in its classrooms. In the “New Jersey State Report Card,” Westfield always compares well against other similar districts regarding SAT scores, the cost of education, and college attendance rates. To continue that success, the Board of Education must ensure that successful programs are maintained and determine which areas need improvement.

 

To access the “New Jersey State Report Card,”, please go to

http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc04/

The easiest way to access the data is via “county/district”; please note that it is not easy to access data from last year, unless you want to review the excel or access data provided

 

The currently open position of Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction leads a team of curriculum supervisors who collectively oversee what is taught at all grade levels. The position is also responsible for designing training programs for current and new teachers, showing our teachers how to implement Westfield’s curriculum and initiatives. The Board of Education must make sure that the person hired will not only preserve our successful programs, but also bring new ideas to the district and evaluate recent initiatives such as differentiated instruction.

 

The position has already been hard to fill, with the original vacancy announced in December. It has now been advertised for the second time.

 

Ask almost any teacher how he or she has implemented differentiation, and they will be able to give you several examples how the same lesson can be taught at several levels to better match the diverse abilities and interests of the students.  At back to school nights, I’ve seen great examples of differentiation at work, with most developed by the teachers themselves.

 

A good, but somewhat detailed example of “differentiated instruction” can be found at

http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_diffinstruc.html

 

 

 

But presently, there is no way to easily share those lesson plans across the district; the Board can enable such sharing through policies using existing technology.

 

Although there are district “network shares” and email addresses, I don’t believe they are used in an organized fashion to share ideas throughout the district. Curriculum supervisors should encourage teachers to transmit ideas, and choose examples to transmit themselves, throughout the district.

 

Students at Westfield High School enjoy a broad range of electives among over 175 courses listed in its Program of Studies booklet, including 16 Advanced Placement courses. However, only slightly more than half of the students in AP classes take the end of the year exams for college credit.

 

If you examine the “report card” above for districts that are similar to Westfield (in size and economic level), you’ll notice that the ones that score better on the SAT’s also typically have more students following through on taking the AP exams. Some districts might even require students to take those exams, or even require exams to get into the courses in the first place. Westfield has a more “open” system where students who want to take advanced courses can, but still one wonders if there is some other reason at lot of the high school students don’t take the exams.

 

I would like the Board to examine that issue, as other similar districts have a greater percentage of students taking those exams.  Other areas I would like the Board to review include starting an International Baccalaureate program at Westfield High, the implementation of the Gifted and Talented 6th grade class at Edison and the need for a K-8 science curriculum supervisor.

 

The International Baccalaureate program was originally developed to allow children of diplomats to attend schools that taught a common curriculum. It has developed for many schools in the US as a “honors track” that is either an alternative or a supplement to AP exams.  The IB program tends to focus on subjects that are more “global” in nature, although schools do have a wide variety of courses to choose from. I believe Westfield is large enough, and has enough honors-level students to support not only AP but IB classes as well. The most seven schools in NJ that offer the program are among the top schools in the state – Westfield should at least consider joining the ranks. For more info, go to the below web pages

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/MarshallHS/academics/ib/faq.htm

http://www.ibo.org/ibo/index.cfm

 

The Gifted and Talented program started a few years ago has been slow to startup due to a variety of personnel changes and new curriculum being implemented. However, the upcoming sixth grade class has gotten pushback from Northside parents who do not want to have to send their children Edison to get the benefits of the current program. I believe a more focused, advanced “magnet” program would attract more of the parents, and also solve the increasing enrollment disparity between Edison and Roosevelt. One possibility is the middle school version of the IB program above.

 

I doubt anyone, including current board members, would discount the need for a K-8 science supervisor. It just needs to be prioritized for the next budget.

 

 

My understanding of the current curriculum related issues before the Board, and experience in designing and implementing technology courses as a corporate instructor will enable me, Gary McCready, to be an effective Board of Education member from day one. Please visit my web site at www.mccready.com for more background on the above topics.

 

Please feel free to forward this to whomever in Westfield you believe in interested in curriculum issues.