BEYOND STANDARDIZED TESTS AND METRICS
GL hosted its curriculum night this past week to welcome and inform the current 8th-grade class. The presentation was impressive, and the leadership team highlighted the 27 AP courses, STEAM electives, and various clubs and activities with the slick video. It was a great event, and everyone who put it together deserves credit. What stayed with me after the presentation...
NATASHA JOLY SHOULD BE ON THE BOE
One of my votes will be going to Natasha Joly, who I met while her husband was coaching my oldest daughter’s softball team last year. I got to know her more during the Berkeley Heights French Revolution. Natasha presents as poised, composed, and informed. The evidence of this exists on tape at BOE Meetings. On Zoom Meetings On Calls for...
Advocating for Equitable Education for ALL
We’ve heard the word ‘equity’ used in at least a dozen different contexts over the last few years. I’m not quite sure what the district defines as equitable because it seems to be the “go to” phrase to support any new initiative – who can argue with equity? I would define ‘equity’ as being synonymous with ‘fairness.’ When it comes...
ONE MORE REALLY LONG ARTICLE ABOUT PROFICIENCIES AND METRICS
BOE Members and Residents have been discussing the issue of proficiencies for some time now, and the same is true for metrics. Proficiencies were part of the discussion during last year’s election season. They came up again in the public debate surrounding the Budget earlier this year, and then again three months ago during a BOE meeting as a result...
PEELING BACK DR. vARLEY’S POLICY RUSH
Given the number of policy updates in recent months during BOE meetings, and with a questionable decision about the League of Women Voters ability to host a candidate debate at Governor Livingston, Berkeley Heights parents expressed concern over the number of policy updates and their content. In response, during the September 22, 2022 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Varley had...
Sliding Grades and Proficiencies
The historical trend of Governor Livingston High schools Math proficiency scores shows a disturbing pattern, and Science also appears to be in troubled waters. Many parents in the community are questioning how we got here. The short answer – one reason we are here is that measurement, for whatever reason and for the longest time, has been incorrectly viewed as...
Goals, PerfoRmance, and Metrics
Metrics should be embraced, not feared There has been much discussion recently about goals, metrics, and student performance in the community as well as at the Board of Ed meetings. After reading through comments and listening to differing opinions, I wanted to clarify my view on the topic. I believe in the use of meaningful metrics because we need a way to...
A PLAN IS NOT A GOAL
The dictionary lists the definition of the word “goal” as “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” “Budget” is “the amount of money needed or available for a purpose.” Let us focus on the first word for a moment. A school district defines the goals to set its ambition for the students and then...
THE HOW MANY GENDERS GAME
I need you you take a deep breath here and hear me out. I’m writing this after sitting back and not reacting to what has been a two day series of events that has become quite predictable in our community as the private messages rolled into my inbox: “why is he in your Facebook group” or “why didn’t you like...
FOLLOW UP TO DISTRICT POLICY CHANGES – BOE MEETING 09/22/2022
-Shauna Williams Now that the dust has kinda sorta settled from the last BOE meeting let’s take a look at one of the specific issues that arose. Dr. Varley said that the policy changes are required by the state (or another outside agency?) and that they haven’t been updated in a decade or more. That leaves me with the following...
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