Board of Ed to Vote on 'Level-UP' Plan Tonight

It's been a busy spring for the South Orange-Maplewood School District and Board of Education. The district and Board have had to deal with massive cuts in state aid and decisions (and subsequent reactions) to cut 23 full-time employees and outsource 76 paraprofessional classroom aides.

Now, the Board will vote on the recommendations of the Superintendent to combine Levels 3 and 4 in 7th grade at its meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Columbia High School. The proposal has generated a lot of interest, with pointed discussion at the May 17 Board of Education meeting and subsequent meetings hosted by the Community Coalition on Race and at the middle schools. The topic was one of the major issues debated during the Board of Education election this spring.

In a letter last week, Superintendent Brian Osborne described the recommendations in detail, calling the proposal "modest":

"In support of the school district's mission to prepare every student for success and higher learning in the 21st century, we issued a report on Equity and Excellence to the Board of Education containing recommendations to increase student access to rigorous coursework, uphold superlative levels of achievement, and provide additional academic supports where needed."

In the letter, Osborne continues to explain that, as a result of the Task Force on Equity and Excellence's report, he is recommending the following changes for implementation in fall 2010:

1. Leveling-up the seventh grade Level 3 into Level 4 in the core subjects of English, Social Studies, and Science.
2. Increase instruction time in core classes of English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies by 25% over the school year for sixth graders by eliminating the Read/Write Seminar and Spanish. (Spanish becomes a full-year course in the seventh grade.)
3. Expand the elementary enrichment pilot to three schools.
4. Change Policy 2314: Academic Placement to better reflect the mission of the school district to prepare every child for success in college.

Osborne stresses that he feels that the Level 4 students' academic experience will not be degraded but that Level 3 students will be expected to perform at a higher level. The Superintendent believes that the changes to the sixth grade core curriculum will help them to do so, and that the change will give more students "a pathway to success in college." Osborne promises that teachers "will receive additional job-embedded support and training."

Two camps have been forming regarding the proposal—one supporting the proposal "as is" and one proffering another model and asking for more time to consider options.

Former Board of Education member (and current member of the Maplewood Citizens Budget Advisory Schools Committee) Stephen Latz is one of several people supporting the Superintendent and Task Force's proposal. When contacted by Patch, Latz asked that we publish the following statement in full:

"I fully support the Superintendent's recommendations and am fully confident in his ability to guide a successful implementation. After lots of phone calls, I have also satisfied myself that the overwhelming majority of seventh grade teachers are both ready and eager to combine levels three and four and make it work for all children. Significantly, every single principal in the district shares the Superintendent's outlook and is strongly supportive. And if you survey all parents, from all parts of town, I believe a majority—both black and white—are supportive. All of the current public anxiety notwithstanding, I am firmly convinced that no student will be adversely affected by the changes, while many stand to benefit a lot. Finally, there are lots of meaningful ways to measure the effectiveness of the effort and Paul Roth (district CIO) is already collecting a lot of the data that will allow the district to do so."

'This is a change that is long overdue," Latz continue. "The first recommendation to de-level in our district was made on February 23, 1993, by a committee of respected teachers that included Roy Eismann, Hope Taylor, Iris Haile and many others. In the current round of discussion, all points of view have been fully heard and our educators have made an unambiguous recommendation. They deserve our support while we insist on clear benchmarks by which success will be measured. I urge people to come to the Board meeting tonight and voice their support for the
Superintendent's recommendation."

Conversely, a group of local parents collecting under the banner "Leveling Can Work" has circulated a petition online stating the following:

"We, concerned parents, students, and alumni of the South Orange-Maplewood NJ School district and local residents hereby ask our School Board to reconsider the recommendations of the Task Force on Excellence and Equity proposed by the Superintendent at the May 17, 2010 Board meeting—especially the momentous recommendation to de-level core subjects in 7th grade. We believe this decision will set the direction of the district for years to come, and therefore it should not be rushed to a Board vote before a full community discussion of all options can take place."

The petition states that the Task Force "failed to consider the option of introducing small honors-level classes in core subjects in middle school." The Leveling Can Work group feels that such classes would help to challenge the highest performing students in the current Level 4 (roughly 10-15% of students in the grade) just as Level 3 students are brought to a Level 4 standard in a combined "Level-UP" class.

The parents are careful to state that their opposition to adopting the Superintendent's proposal as is "does not mean that we support the status quo." Rather, they want more time to explore "the possibility of small honors program in middle school" as well as "adopt a clear set of guidelines to ensure that the curriculum, pace of delivery, and grading standards remain at least as challenging as they are in current Level 4 classes in middle school, which will better prepare students for the grading in high school." The group noted that approximately 80% of students would be placed in the new combined level classes.

The group does support other components of the Task Force recommendations for middle school such as the expansion of time on core subjects which it feels could be implemented for fall 2010.

When contacted by Patch, Donna Smith, one of the parents organizing "Leveling Can Work," responded with the following statement:

"Regarding the need for immediate change, Levels Can Work has always been in agreement that there are flaws in the current leveling system in the middle schools; however, any change to that system must be accomplished with adequate preparation of teachers and staff and appropriate notification to the parents and students directly involved, as well as the community at large. A Board of Ed vote in June, on the Task Force's recommendation to combine Levels 3 and 4 in the 7th grade in September, is sacrificing this badly-needed preparation for the need to 'do something now.' We propose that any action be delayed for a year to allow for the Task Force's proposed changes to 6th grade to be implemented AND fully evaluated, so that any changes to 7th grade can be informed by that evaluation.  (We also note that there has never been an effort to evaluate the effects of the 6th grade deleveling that occurred in 2003.)"

Patch asked Smith to react to the accusations sometimes proffered online that those opposed to de-leveling are "elitist" and/or are worried that their gifted children will not be sufficiently challenged. Smith responded: "With respect to the charge that we are 'elitist,' don't forget that we are only advocating an honors level of a very small portion of the class, which may or may not encompass our own children. (In fact, my children are not affected at all, as our youngest is entering the high school next year.) We also recommend utilizing criteria for the honors level that will be non-discriminatory and inclusive. We believe that our proposal would benefit those students who truly need to be challenged more, while combining the majority of the students in a true 'middle' level. In this manner, we believe that the Level 3 'stigma' and problems associated therewith could be erased."