District Holds Second Meeting on Middle School Restructuring

The proposed will not be unduly costly, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Osborne told an audience on Wednesday night at a special meeting at Columbia High School. He — and other district administrators — also said that the program would provide rigor for all students, even as the district reduced the number of levels — or tracks — that separate students using measures of academic performance and standardized testing.

A subdued crowd listened intently as Osborne and middle school principals Jeff Truppo (Maplewood Middle School) and Joseph Uglialoro (South Orange Middle School) answered 11 questions about the proposed middle school restructuring.

A crowd of about 200 gathered to hear Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne's annual State of the District address, followed by prepared answers to the 11 questions that had been culled from submissions made online by interested residents. The questions ranged from "Why IB?" to queries about funding, curriculum, and professional development. Parents wanted to know if the IB program could be incorporated faster and/or expanded to the high school. Other questions focused on particulars such as the impact of pulling 6th graders out of arts instruction for interventions.

Finally, moderator Barbara Heisler said that there were many questions regarding rigor.

In answer to "Why IB?" Uglialoro said that "the world is changing so rapidly, we can't predict the careers we are preparing our children for." He argued that IB would engender the critical and creative thinking needed for children to succeed. "Students will be regularly engaged in meaningful investigation, problem solving and problem finding." He said that an IB classroom would ask students to innovate and also teach them to understand their global peers.

Osborne said that he felt that the costs of professional development for IB would not be vastly different than the present allocations for professional development in the district. He also said that he projected the cost for fees and support for the IB program to be no more than $20,000 per school.

Truppo noted that IB doesn't "dictate a curriculum" but rather would reveal itself in classrooms through a different approach to subject matter. "You talk about your approach. How do I study this?" Truppo said rigor would be assured through professional development and evaluation provided not just through district and state measurements but through the IB program.

One questioner chided the district for not providing the gifted and talented program required by the state.

Osborne responded at length and pointedly to this question.

"This has come up many, many times," he said. Noting that gifted and talented students were measured to be about 3% of the student population, Osborne said, "Ideally we would have a system of identification — it's about 20 students in each grade — and meet their needs."

"This lies in front of us," said Osborne. "It's a critical aspect of our work that we haven't gotten to."

"But we do have exceptional students that we have crafted programs for. We need to make this systemic and more formalized. It's work we want to do."

However, Osborne said, "Our current proposal is fashioned to address more pressing problems."

Osborne said that the IB program combined with further de-leveling would help push achieving students and lift struggling students.

"Kids can be engaged at very high levels in heterogeneous groups," said Osborne. "They can be highly challenged and doing meaningful work." He added, "We take just as seriously the problem of the bored student as much as the challenged student."

Osborne called the proposed middle school restructuring "a golden opportunity to build on our success without judging, sorting and labeling them [the students] at such an early age."

Added at 12:10 p.m.:

In response to the question, "Why the hurry to rush through de-leveling?" Osborne briefly went into a discussion of the data from the 7th grade de-leveling which have been the subject of much debate since they were unveiled in October. Said Osborne, "I do think it tells a positive story but we are working on a more detailed student by student analysis."

Later he added, "I think it's a pretty good showing and evidence we didn't slip, and there are kids in Level 4 in 8th grade now who would not have been there — while not doing harm to others."

Osborne also said that he felt that ending 6th grade "micro-leveling" in math had not done the predicted damage but had resulted in the strongest increase in the percentage of advanced proficient scores in math in the 6th grade. 

Other questions submitted asked why IB could not be rolled out faster — and also, why it could not be a five year program, as opposed to a three year program.

Osborne focused mostly on the second part of this question, saying that implementation of the IB Middle Years Program into grades 9 and 10 was "an open question" and "no decisions have been made."

"If we want to go to grades 9 and 10, we need to make that decision by the 2013-14 school year to have it in place." He added, "We have no intention to supplant the AP program with the diploma program [in grades 11 and 12]. He noted that a decision would need to be made by 2015-16 to implement the IB program for grades 11 and 12.

Osborne stated more than once during the meeting that he felt that the IB MYP program roll-out plan was as "aggressive" as it could be. If approved by the Board of Education, teacher training for 6th grade would begin in the 2012-13 school year so that the program could be rolled out for 6th graders in 2013-14.  An additional grade would be trained and added each year for a seamless transition for that grade as it moved up. Osborne said he didn't "see much of an increase in the course of the year" in teachers being pulled out of classrooms for training.

One question noted that the one school district in New Jersey that had implemented IB (Cherry Hill) was moving away from the program. Osborne said that he was "no in close conversation with Cherry Hill," but that he was in close contact with other districts that were seeing "great results." Those districts were Rockville Center, MD; Arlington, VA; and Montgomery County, MD.

After the prepared responses and a period for questions submitted during the evening on index cards, a brief public comment period was opened.

The majority of the speakers seemed to be supportive of IB and de-leveling. Andrea Correll, who had run the afterschool enrichment program at Seth Boyden School, said that "time after time I saw students leveled up" in the varied group of children brought together for afterschool enrichment. However, John Davenport took exception to earlier comments by MMS Principal Jeff Truppo defending the lack of an accelerated course for science and social studies in the middle schools. "I would say that Truppo's answer does not persuade me. Acceleration in science and social sciences would also open up opportunities as well."

One speaker said he had been in an IB school in New Delhi, India in the 70s. "Kids went on to NGOs and foreign service," he said, noting that many were the children of state department personnel and ambassadors.

Marian Sender — a former Board of Education member from the 1990s — said she has been teaching 8th grade in an IB school for the past 6-1/2 years at Renaissance Middle School in Montclair. "We continue to have some of the problems you want to solve," she said, "But we have a sense of community." She said that students did not divide into groups by intellectual ability as she saw elsewhere.

A young woman who graduated from Columbia High School in 2005 said that she felt property values in the towns would be better maintained if the proposed changes were adopted. "Students who feel valued and respected have a better chance to do better."

A new parent in the district said that she was impressed with the treatment that her son — who is African-American — had been receiving in his middle school. "I'm seeing dedication to my son at the middle school." She added, "I'm fully confident that this district is going to do right by our kids and the parents need to stand behind them."

David Simmons, CHS '06 and a graduate of Swarthmore College, said, "Either we have a tracking system that is an effective measure that believes that white students are more deserving. If not, we've got a tracking system that reflects a legal system of white supremacy in this country." He added, "This isn't about your child and your children. It's about your community and your neighbor's child and facing racism."