West Windsor–Plainsboro Schools Superintendent David Aderhold has issued a scathing public response to what he described as a politically motivated campaign targeting the district’s performance and leadership.
Aderhold’s 14-page statement was released in response to a statewide advertising campaign by Wake Up Call NJ, a self-described nonprofit advocacy group that launched a multi-million-dollar effort in September focused on the WW-P and Montclair school districts.
The organization, co-founded by philanthropist Laura Overdeck and former state Deputy Education Commissioner Peter Shulman, says its goal is to equip parents with facts and demand transparency.
Meanwhile, Wake Up Call NJ co-founder Laura Overdeck, maintained in letter responding to Aderhold that the campaign is not political and that Aderhold misunderstands its mission.
In his statement, which was released to all families in the distroct, Aderhold said the district “welcomes transparency and dialogue and rejects the incomplete and incorrect narrative about student performance being promulgated by the politically motivated organization called Wake Up Call NJ.”
In an interview with the the News, following the release of his statement, Aderhold said the scale and breadth of the messaging underscored that this is a comprehensive and widespread effort.
“There’s significant dollars attached to this campaign,” he said. “This is not just like someone trying to make a point locally.”
He said there is a continuing a blitz of ads on billboards, radio, social media and television. Residents have also reported receiving calls and texts as the campaign ramped up.
Aderhold said he believes the effort singles out high-performing districts to seed widespread doubts about the current state of education in public schools.
“If you really want to make a splash, you don’t go after a community like Newark, Patterson, or even Hamilton,” he said. “You go after a WW-P, a Millburn, a Princeton, a Chatham, and you say, ‘Well, those district’s aren’t doing well, so it sows questions about everyone else.’”
In his written statement, Aderhold called the messaging an insult to students and staff.
“The campaign by WUCNJ insults our students, families, and educators by calling our community and district ‘complacent,’” he said.
“Not only is our school district constantly pushing our practices, but we continue to set the standard for excellence throughout the state,” Aderhold said.
He defended WW-P’s teachers and administrators.
“Our district’s educators are incredibly dedicated to your children and are exceptional in all that they do in service of their students,” he wrote.
Aderhold said confusion among families was a factor in his response to WUCNJ.
“We understand that the WW-P community is being bombarded by the empty rhetoric of WUCNJ and it can be disconcerting,” he wrote.
“Rest assured, their campaign has nothing to do with WW-P or our commitment to students,” he said. “Unfortunately, it has everything to do with partisan politics.”
He pushed back on the way proficiency scores from standardized tests are being used by the group to characterize student achievements.
“Students are more than one assessment,” he told the News. “They shouldn’t be the be-all end-all. One test should never define the student’s outcome.”
He said the district tracks growth and uses it to plan strategies, group students, and provide targeted interventions.
He said WW-P employs some 30 interventionists and follows an MTSS model—short for multi-tiered system of support—to give targeted help to struggling students.
According to Aderhold’s statement, district performance “remains strong and amongst the highest within the state of New Jersey and the nation.”
The district reported that WW-P high school students significantly outperform state and national averages across core indicators.
Recent data included average SAT scores of 647 in reading/writing and 661 in math, advanced placement pass rates of 90% across 3,740 exams with 38% earning a five, and approximately 24% of seniors receiving National Merit recognition.
The district cites graduation readiness levels of 97% in English language arts and 93% in math, far exceeding statewide rates, along with a 96.8% continuation rate for graduates and 664 students earning the Seal of Biliteracy from 2018–2024.
Aderhold said the district’s state test proficiency “substantially exceeds statewide rates in both Mathematics and English Language Arts.”
He noted that 70.2% of WW-P students met or exceeded expectations in math versus 40.2% statewide, and 75.9% met or exceeded expectations in ELA versus 52.2% statewide.
“The district acknowledges the work that needs to be done to accelerate growth for students not yet meeting state benchmarks,” he wrote. “The district is actively addressing performance gaps and recovery from pandemic impacts.”
He said there has been a “positive rebound” in math since 2022, and that literacy remains “a continuing challenge that the district is actively addressing.”
Aderhold said the majority of students in the fourth-grade example cited by WUCNJ scored at levels three to five, with most “falling into four or five.”
He said multilingual learners and students receiving special education tend to face the greatest challenges—groups the district supports with individualized plans and tiered interventions.
He also referenced mobility—families entering and exiting the district from other communities and countries—as part of the local context that snapshot percentages don’t reflect.
The district cited “new foundational literacy programming” in K–5, pilots of two literacy programs in K–8, adoption of a new K–5 math resource, and expanded tutoring, extended learning, and diagnostics.
Aderhold wrote that “more than 150” curriculum documents were updated over the summer, and professional development is structured “to support differentiated instruction and equitable access for all learners.”
He said WW-P encourages parents to review state performance reports and district materials online.
“Parents and caregivers should reach out directly to their child’s teacher(s), counselor, or case manager with any questions or concerns regarding grade-level progress,” he wrote.
He also pointed to a scheduled public testing presentation at an October Board of Education meeting.
In both the statement and interview, Aderhold questioned the advocacy group’s motives, financing, and timing.
He said the campaign “is not about WW-P, but about a systematic and targeted political campaign intended to sow division, raise cause for concerns about public education, and lay the foundation for the large movement of privatization and for-profit education.”
“I don’t know if (their agenda) is charter schools,” he said. “But I think it’s privatization and voucher. ‘Charter’ means different things in different states, but privatization and voucher usually have the same definition.”
Overdeck rejected that interpretation.
She said the group “has nothing to do with privatization or vouchers” and is “entirely focused on improving public education for all students.”
She added, “Educating our children should never be a political issue.”
Overdeck said the campaign is not political and that Aderhold’s characterization is a misunderstanding of its mission.
She said the group is “entirely dedicated to helping all public school students thrive exactly where they are: in public school.”
She noted that Wake Up Call NJ is a bipartisan nonprofit organization, pointing out that co-founder Peter Shulman is a registered Democrat and she is a registered Republican.
Overdeck said she appreciates that Aderhold shared the same state data that WUCNJ did, and she claimed “those data confirm that, despite West Windsor’s stellar performance on some fronts, a quarter to a third of WW-P students are not succeeding.”
She said those numbers represent students “being left behind, and those sizable fractions are not acceptable.”
“Would we accept a fire department that didn’t respond to one-third of calls?” she asked.
She addded that the campaign’s intent is not to discredit successful districts but to highlight where improvement is needed.
“There’s nothing partisan about wanting kids to achieve at or beyond grade level by the end of the school year,” Overdeck said.
Her focus, she added, is ensuring parents “have full transparency of how their students are doing relative to grade level.”
Overdeck said she shares the goal of supporting teachers and families, and that she wants to “ensure parents receive information in real time to make the best decisions for their children alongside their teacher.”
“We’re happy to discuss and support these goals with WW-P any time,” she added. “As we, like you, want your students, and all public school students in NJ, to thrive.”
Overdeck also said Wake Up Call NJ is “calling for key changes to ensure parents know if their children are meeting grade-level expectations,” including clearer explanations of report card grades and faster return of test results.
Wake Up Call NJ’s website presents the group as a nonpolitical 501(c)(3) that aims to improve all New Jersey public schools through better transparency.
Meanwhile, Aderhold’s statement questioned the organization’s disclosure of donors and argued the seven-week ad campaign aligns with the run-up to the Nov. 4 general election.
“Someone’s paying a lot of money for advertisements,” he said, adding that the campaign is “about using WW-P in their larger narrative.”
He said WW-P will continue reporting results, updating curriculum, and supporting students who need help while pushing back against messaging he sees as misleading.
“We have families that are willing to ask questions, and they’re involved and they care about their kids’ education,” he said.
Aderhold said his administration strives to keep politics out of day-to-day work. “We work really hard to try to stay out of partisan politics. We’re a public education institute meeting the needs of all. That’s our charge.”
He said that when outside groups attempt to “leverage our community for a larger political message,” the district will “defend itself in a way in which we’re going to name it, we’re gonna call it out, and we’re going to then continue to do the good work that our students and families deserve.”
“Our parents and our board hold us accountable,” he said. “Our kids, our students hold us responsible. And quite frankly, our educators hold our educators accountable. We’re not complacent, we hold ourselves to a high standard, and I’m proud of that work and it deserves to be defended.”
Aderhold opened his written statement with a quotation by George Bernard Shaw: “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
In the interview, he elaborated on why .
He said WUCNJ is “slinging mud and hoping to elicit a response to sow discontent, and they’re going to bask in it all the way through.”
“I don’t respect anything that they’re attempting here,” he said. “I have no intention of responding to them, because they’re not actually serious about solving the issue. They want to play in the mud with me.”
“Their suggestions don’t amount to a plan to help children,” he added. “That’s not a plan. None of what they’re saying is an actual plan to address individual student needs.”
“By contrast, we have an actual plan that’s comprehensive and that we’re really proud of,” Aderhold said.
