Wake Up Call NJ's Bizarre Smear Against Public Education

One of the reasons I brought this blog back (for the moment, at least) is that I'm starting to see the same bad arguments surface that I regularly debunked back in the day. Take, for example, the latest "reformy" group to emerge here in the Garden State: Wake Up Call NJ.

Funded by an extremely wealthy ex-wife of a hedge fund manager, WUCNJ appears to have a lot of money to spread around in the service of casting doubt about public education. The group has been taking out TV ads, sending out mailers, and, weirdly, posting flyers in local businesses (more in a minute), all on a mission to convince parents that public schools are not only failing, but actually lying to them about their children's education.

There's a lot to unpack here, starting with the notion that "grade level" is a fixed concept that can be validly and reliably measured by a single administration of a single standardized test. There's also the strange idea that report card grades can somehow be validated by the outcomes of these same tests, as if grades didn't have other valuable functions. 

I'll get to a more thorough critique of WUCNJ's view of public education—and why it's, at best, stunted—at some point. Right now, I'll focus on what I think can be fairly described as a bizarre smear of one of the top-performing school districts in the state.

Folks, I've been looking at NJ school data for quite a few years; so when I saw this, I had to take a closer look. West Windsor-Plainsboro is acknowledged across the state as one of its highest-performing school districts. Year after year, the district resides at the top of the lists that rank districts by various metrics. By any standard—graduation rates, college attainment, test scores, AP scores and participation—WWP is a school district other districts strive to emulate.

Why would WUCNJ go after one of the highest performing districts in the state? Especially when their allegations are clearly wrong?

Look, I'm the first to say even high-flying districts like WWP aren't perfect. And a sad truth is that there are kids, even in districts like WWP, who are not well served by their schools. This isn't to make excuses, but it's to acknowledge that public education is ongoing work, and even the best schools can and should strive to get better.

But "failing" is a strong word. WUCNJ alleges that WWP hasn't developed a plan for improvement and doesn't regularly communicate with parents about their students' progress. In a comprehensive response, Superintendent Dr. David Aderhold shows that just isn't true.

Let me take a minute to talk about Aderhold. I've communicated a few times with him over the years; once, I spoke to a group of administrators at the WWP central office, in an event sponsored by WWP. I have found the man to be a thoughtful and impressive education leader; I've also come away with the sense that he has a finely-honed BS detector, and that he is fiercely loyal to his staff, his students, and his community.

Aderhold understands that school leaders have a critical role in developing education policy, and that they should speak plainly and without fear about these policies. I suspect his willingness to challenge received wisdom about public education was one of the reasons WUCNJ decided to target his district. I would, however, hold him as an example for other school leaders: don't let outsiders bad-mouth your teachers, students, and parents simply to sell a story not based in reality.

And make no mistake: the idea that WWP is a "failing" district is a fairy tale. In his response, Aderhold goes through many, many data points that show WWP is a high-performing school district. But let me add one more:

See, WUCNJ bases the entirety of their argument on proficiency rates from statewide tests. As I've written before, proficiency rates should be approached with great caution. But I'll set aside that for the moment and ask: how do students in the "failing" West Windsor-Plainsboro school district do on proficiency as they move through grade levels?

It turns out they do very well:

What I've done here is follow a single cohort, the Class of 2027, through each grade as they took the NJ statewide test. Grade 5 and 6 are missing because of the pandemic and the suspension of testing, but the remaining grades show a trend: As WWP's Class of '27 has moved from grade to grade, it's proficiency rate in English Language Arts has improved. As of the latest data, 9 out of 10 WWP students meet the 9th Grade ELA state proficiency standard.

Again, I'm not saying WWP doesn't have things to improve. Aderhold says that; I'm sure his staff says it. I'll bet even the students believe they can get better. But, c'mon man—what more do you want from a school district? Are you seriously telling me it's reasonable to call this "failure"?

Let me note something important: yes, WWP has its challenges, but it is a school district set up to succeed. It has a strong tax base and a community of parents who move to the district specifically for the schools. It doesn't have nearly the problems with poverty and homelessness as many other NJ districts. There is certainly language diversity, but it's not as extensive as many other communities.

I don't doubt WWP has many caring, capable educators. But we have to acknowledge its "success" is due, in no small part, to its students' living conditions and the capability of the community to raise the funds it needs. 

If Wake Up Call NJ really wants to help "failing" schools, it should start there: making sure all schools have the resources they need to educate their particular population of students. That's especially important in places that don't have the socio-economic advantages of WWP, including the tax base: those communities need even more resources than WWP has now.

Instead of doing this work, however, WUCNJ is apparently using its vast resources to undermine confidence in WWP schools within its own community. 

"And just with respect to their campaign: I have now gone to several businesses about the flyers on their buildings. Every single company I spoke to, when I asked them why did they choose to put that up? 'Well, someone came and asked if they could put that up about the schools.' They had no idea what was really in front of their stores, what it stood for, and what it represented. And every time I asked them, 'Why would you put something up that is misleading and is an incomplete story, the immediate response is: 'Would you like me to take it down?' To which I said: 'Yes, I would. Because I think it sends an incomplete and incorrect message to our community.' And they all took it down."

School leaders, this is how you fight back against the casual, misleading, pernicious garbage that gets hurled at public schools every day. And get used to it: there are plenty of very wealthy people willing to spend their money to do things like putting up flyers in local businesses that bad-mouth the local schools. 

It seems very weird, I know, but this is the world in which we now live. More on Wake Up Call NJ's war on public education in a bit.