June 2003

Dear Community Member in South Orange & Maplewood:

Because the founders of ACE were concerned that children in our school district were not receiving effective basic reading, writing, and spelling instruction, ACE commissioned nationally recognized curriculum evaluators to prepare an objective, research-based assessment of the South Orange-Maplewood K-3 language arts curriculum. The findings of this just-completed evaluation are detailed in K-3 Curriculum Analysis Report: School District of South Orange and Maplewood, New Jersey.

When ACE parents expressed concern to school administrators that the language arts curriculum does not reflect current research, these concerns were taken lightly. Similarly, 69% of local K-8 teachers completed a teachers’ association survey on the district’s language arts curriculum. Ninety-eight percent of teachers surveyed perceived a lack of program efficacy. The district administration dismissed this data. The survey of teachers confirmed what ACE members suspected: the district’s language arts curriculum, particularly as it pertains to reading instruction, meets neither the needs of our children nor state-of-the-art standards.

One of ACE’s first acts was to address this issue by commissioning the study mentioned above. The key finding of our curriculum evaluation is that the South Orange-Maplewood Integrated Language Arts Program does not meet current standards for all five areas that are necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary instruction, and text comprehension. In fact, the evaluators found our homegrown curriculum fails to provide "thorough coverage" for even one of these components. The reviewers conclude: The children in the School District of South Orange and Maplewood, New Jersey, deserve a research-validated core reading program that includes explicit and sequenced instruction across the five areas of effective reading instruction.

How many professional reviews does it take to change a curriculum? After the most recent in-district Language Arts Program Evaluation in 1998, our Board of Education adopted the recommendations set forth by that evaluation committee, yet they were never implemented. That committee’s recommendations were informed by in-district classroom visits of a consultant, Harvard’s Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams, a top expert in the field of teaching reading. Her conclusion was that the district should get rid of its current curriculum and buy one written by curriculum experts, one tested and proven to work. The Board of Education accepted the report—but shelved it.

Now five years later, the portion of our children requiring reading remediation steadily grows. Twenty percent of elementary pupils across the system need remediation. In one school, 41% of second graders are in remedial reading. National targets are between 5% and 6%.

ACE asserts that it is high time for our board of education to acknowledge the uncomfortable fact that our district is producing unacceptable results. ACE asserts that by disregarding the reading instruction methods that work best, the board and administration have accommodated themselves to failure. What Dr. Jager Adams indicated was needed in 1998 is confirmed by the findings of ACE’s current report. It is time to hold the Board of Education of South Orange-Maplewood accountable. Changes must be made to our current language arts program to avoid further educational malfeasance. It is time to lower our remedial reading rates. It is time to do the right thing for our children. They deserve no less than the best.

Sincerely yours,

Rowland Bennett
Peter Frederikse, Ph.D.
Maura Walsh
Melissa E. Frederikse, M.D.
Andrew Moskowitz, Esq.
Betsy Durr

Members of the Board, All Children Excelling (ACE-CCEA), Inc.