After hearing concerns about High School North’s honors biology pilot program at a March 13 meeting, David Aderhold and others in the West Windsor-Plainsboro administration came to the March 25 Board of Education meeting with a detailed action plan.
By all accounts, the response has been substantial. In thanking parents and students — especially those who filled out surveys about the program — Aderhold noted that “the information I received was not always positive, but it was enlightening.”
Parents and students also expressed support for Aderhold’s solutions, and for the speed in which he implemented the changes. Some concerns still linger, including whether there will be enough time this year for students to catch up on missed project work, a provision for extra teaching of basic biology concepts, and up-to-date grading. In addition, parents have expressed concern that the teachers involved will be discouraged by the lack of support the pilot program has received. Finally, parents expressed concerns over the idea of “student-centered instructional strategies.”
In a March 21 E-mail to parents, Aderhold said he had reviewed the feedback from the parents’ meeting on March 13 with Mike Zapicchi, North principal, and Martin Smith, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and had decided on the following “action steps:”
Grades of D and F will be changed to “Incomplete” for Marking Periods 1 and 2.
Any student not meeting progress indicators for Marking Period 3 will receive a grade of “Incomplete.”
Teachers will utilize direct instruction during the knowledge acquisition period of each unit. To accomplish this, there will be a transition from a completely self-paced classroom and a move toward a hybrid model, which will include both direct instruction and application. This will allow students to receive personalized feedback, while still fulfilling the need for whole class debriefing and conversation.
During Marking Period 4, “quests” will be more specifically defined with concrete due dates.
In addition, Aderhold wrote, “we will implement checkpoints of foundational content knowledge with standardized assessments to allow students to demonstrate knowledge. Whole class or differentiated small group activities will be more intentional and will include common lab exercises and activities. We will work with students who are behind to help them meet the goals and re-establish appropriate pacing to complete the course successfully.
“No other course, such as chemistry or physics, will be structured as a totally self-directed, self-paced course. This does not mean that teachers may not employ student-centered instructional strategies such as problem-based activities, flipped lessons, and project-based lessons that are embedded in traditional approaches to instruction.”
Aderhold sent out a second communication to parents, explaining that the teaching model allowing for a student self-paced, self-directed education approach will no longer be employed in biology or honors biology. However, he reaffirmed the district’s commitment to the “21st century competencies,” which, among other things, stress self-directed learning as one of the important components of successful educational objectives and methodologies.
As Aderhold explained self-directed learning, “learning does not stop at the end of the school day or the end of the school year. Learning is, and must be, a lifelong pursuit. As educators, we nurture student self-direction and motivation, and we provide students with opportunities before, during, and after instruction to exercise some control of their own learning. This does not mean students make all the decisions but it does require that we teach and engage students in specific strategies that offer them opportunities to make decisions and solve problems to help them process information effectively and to be self-confident, engendering a belief that they have the abilities to succeed.”
He also noted that the Advanced Placement (AP) Biology examination, generally taken in junior or senior year, is being revised, focusing more on inquiry-based, problem-based learning, and that students in biology classes will continue to work on hands-on quests, as they have for many years in every biology class in the district, not just those in the pilot program.
Finally, he confirmed that students would be given ample opportunity to complete projects and other work, that their progress and results of assessments would be placed on Infinite Campus for parents and students to review, and that teachers would be available for after-school learning sessions.
Aderhold promised another communique would be sent to parents on April 11.
Said Board Vice President Richard Kaye, “I am very impressed with Dr. Aderhold and the administration for their very high level of professionalism in their handling of this issue. They listened to everyone’s concerns and points of view, and acted quickly to address these concerns.”
Other Curriculum Issues. Richard Kaye announced that the district will not be offering Hindi as a world language alternative in the 2014-’15 school year.
“We reviewed the data we collected, and had a very careful discussion on whether or not the numbers justified offering Hindi as a language. As we have said all along, we had to have enough interested students, who are not native speakers, to sustain the teaching of at least two sections of the language through middle school, just as we do for the other languages offered.
“When we subtracted out the native Hindi speakers, there were only 24 students who had registered for Hindi who would be attending Community Middle School, and 20 at Grover Middle School. These are insufficient numbers and therefore we have made the decision not to offer Hindi next year. We may reconsider this in the future.”
A curriculum change that will be implemented involves the teaching of computer skills. “We are going to reconfigure our method of teaching computers,” said Kaye, “so that there will be an integrated program of study in the third through the seventh grades, which will allow all students to become computer-proficient and thus prepared for the new PARCC assessment tests that will only be offered on line. We will replace the current computer courses in kindergarten and first grade with a music course, since music has been lacking from the younger students’ curriculum.”
North-Ewing Hockey Merge. Board member Michele Kaish discussed the merger of the High School North boys’ ice hockey team with Ewing High School for the next two school years. Board member Michele Kaish explained that North did not have enough players for a full team, but that under the cooperative arrangement, High School North would serve as the host team, with a few members being from Ewing. Insurance coverage would be extended to cover the Ewing students. WW-P will charge the Ewing district $250 per team member to cover costs.
In a later interview, district athletic director Jean Marie Seal explained that the Ewing team had “co-oped” with Lawrence for the last two years, and needed a new team to join with for the coming season. “We decided to try this to help stabilize the ice hockey program at North and provide them with a few extra players,” Seal said.
“Right now the High School South team is stable [has enough players] but a cooperative situation with High School South might be an option in the future.”
However, this type of cooperative arrangement cannot be extended to other sports, Seal said, because under the NJ State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) rules, all group 4 schools are prohibited to co-op. The only exception is ice hockey. According to the NJSIAA, the exception exists, regardless of school size, because of the expense of the sport, and because schools statewide are having difficulties in fielding full teams. (Former WW-P athletic director Marty Flynn introduced the motion before the NJSIAA.) At the time of its passage, the NJSIAA indicated that it might consider extending the waiver to other sports in the future, but for the present extended the waiver to one sport.
