CURRENT MESSAGE (2004)

A bond referendum will be presented to area voters on March 9, 2004. It provides for additions, renovations and / or repairs to the two public high schools served by one regional district: West Morris Central High School and West Morris Mendham High School. This will be the first building referendum introduced in more than 30 years, when voters approved the construction of West Morris Mendham in 1970.

The West Morris Regional High School District Board of Education evaluated a wide range of options and took into account the results of a community opinion survey before taking this significant step. As a result, we believe that the bond referendum that will go before you and other voters in March: is the most fiscally responsible, cost-effective option possible; and is a permanent, long-term solution to the challenges of accommodating growing student populations and meeting current and expanding educational requirements for graduation.

So that you can make an informed decision about the referendum, and as part of our continuing quest to communicate with our local communities, in addition to our referendum web page we are also preparing special editions of News & Views.
Over the next several weeks, we will: meet with individuals, community groups and organizations host Open Houses and Facility Tours at both high schools; and
respond to questions submitted after January 5 (2004) on the Referendum Information Hotline (908-879-0006).

Thank you for taking the time to learn and consider all the facts before you make your decision and cast your vote on March 9, 2004.

On Teaching American History (2003 Message)

Last month I received an invitation from President Bush to participate in a White House Forum on American History, Civics and Service. Announced last September in a Rose Garden Ceremony, President Bush is initiating a much-needed academic focus on our nation’s tradition of service. This is a unique and admirable endeavor, and it could not come at a better time.

We know from the results of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in American history that our nation’s young people are woefully lacking in content knowledge of the most basic facts of American History. We also know, most notably from the research of Diane Ravitch, that there are too many teachers instructing students in American history who are uncertified to teach history. Even more likely, these teachers may have never studied history in college. The inevitable danger of this situation is that our students are increasingly subjected to a textbook-driven social studies curriculum. This curriculum is taught by teachers who may also lack basic content knowledge as well as a passion for teaching students about the critical events, people and movements in shaping the democratic vision of our nation.

As a school superintendent, I know that students learn best in classrooms where teachers are also continually learning about the content they teach. For this reason, we aggressively pursed the application and won one of the Teaching American History grants first funded by the Senate in 2001 and continuing in its third round of applications. While the jury is still out on the effects of the grant, I can only give evidence from our local effort at West Morris Regional as to the power of the grant’s effect.

By investing in a forum to learn with some of the best historians in the country, teachers have made the teaching of American history a more active process in our classrooms. History must not must not be taught passively from textbook passages, but rather from engaging students to discuss, debate and read from a variety of historical documents and personal narratives. Our students also learn to apply the same research skills used by historians in weighing the evidence provided from multiple sources.

Our evidence so far shows that the number of students taking Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams in history has doubled in the past three years. In addition, the assessments developed by teachers have changed as teachers now spend more instructional time on academically challenging tasks such as analyzing documents and writing persuasively to defend a point of view. However, the most remarkable unanticipated effect is the significant increase of the number of students volunteering to participate in civic activities. While we always thought we had a variety of service organizations for students to join, our students are initiating their own ideas to volunteer time and talent to community, church and state organizations.

President Bush’s call to action to coordinate the teaching of American history, civic education and service to community and country is new and necessary. As Professor Ken Jackson of Columbia University once noted, there are many countries in the world that are bound by either a common ethnicity or a common religion. What makes America unique is that we are united by a common democratic vision, a vision of liberty, equality and justice. Our students need to preserve that vision, and we need to have citizens who understand how it was shaped in the past and how much courage and sacrifice it has always taken to win and keep peace, liberty and justice. If we raise a generation weak on their knowledge of historical facts, we run the risk of creating a mislead citizenry who will re-create a wishful past or have the past interpreted for them by special interest groups.

Thanks to the President’s vision and the Department of Education’s Teaching American History grants, we have the opportunity to inspire teachers and students by coordinating new methods and lessons to traditional American history, civics and service to country.