Controversial Curriculum Survey Raises Eyebrows with the New Superintendent's Trade Program Plans Questioned
- Kathie Schwartz
- Jun 12, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 24, 2024
On April 29th, the RIH district hired Hanover Research to conduct a curriculum evaluation, for a fee of $48,500.
This week, the RIH district sent out a “perception” survey about its programs, prepared by Hanover Research.
I expected that a curriculum evaluation would entail a deep dive into what we are teaching, how our course offerings compare to those of other high performing districts, where our test scores are lagging and how we can improve.
The perceptions of our schools are important. However, the district's survey, sent even to 8th graders who are not in our high schools yet, about specific under-enrolled and hypothetical programs lacked context. This survey of perceptions may not yield useful data and could support decisions contradicted by factual data. Questions about HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing, and Cosmetology are concerning.
Our district has always been a high performing one, a district that attracts families to move to FLOW towns for the excellent schools.
Our new superintendent is from a much lower performing district, where the graduation rate is significantly below the state average and very significantly below RIH 95+% graduation rate.
Creation of new programs that cater to small populations of students is expensive, and in a district that already spends over $25K per student, it is hard to imagine how creating new trade school programs is within our budget, nor how such programs would contribute to elevating our schools to the next level.
The RIH BOE should be looking for a full analysis of how our district’s course offerings compare to other high achieving districts such as Millburn, Summit, Ridgewood, and Northern Highlands, to name a few. The perception survey is long, the questions are vague, and the risk of decisions being made based on the ‘perceptions’ revealed in a survey is frightening to me.
For those of you who have already been through our schools, I believe you will have better insights to share than the families of students who aren’t even here yet.
Here's the link to the survey:
