Speaking of soliciting public input, the D.O.E. is inviting comment on the new high school curriculum and the subject specific tests that will become a graduation requirement. The Record reports that starting today comments can be sent to: Jay Doolan, assistant commissioner, New Jersey Department of Education, River View Executive Plaza Building 100, PO Box 500, Trenton, NJ 08625-0500.

Huh? The High School Redesign Committee has been meeting for over two years and just decided to ask the public what they think? Actually, the Committee already approved and recommended new courses and exit exams without much public assistance (okay – to be fair, the High School Redesign Committee held 15 public forums during 2006 and 2007), and introduced the new set of requirements to the New Jersey Board of Education for approval. Instead of the exultant applause that the Committee apparently thought its due, the Board nixed the end-of-course tests, most likely relying on data from other states who found that such exams lowered graduation rates. And, of course, the “one size fits all” underpinnings of the Illustrious Committee is somewhat discordant with New Jersey’s diverse student population, not to mention the differentiation much touted in current pedagogy.

Is this new interest in the public a way to maneuver around the State Board’s lack of enthusiasm? There’s already been some backtracking – for example, Algebra II was eliminated from the list of required courses after a dressing-down from experts in the field – and no answers for local boards asking how they’re supposed to pay for new science labs and find new math and science teachers giving the current dearth.

Is the D.O.E. hoping that there will be a gusty shout of approval from the unwashed masses to set the State Board straight on the need for high school reform? How much of this bar-set-high standardization is a result of the State’s purported logic that special needs districts (i.e., Abbotts) are unnecessary because all our little high schools on the hillside dressed in ticky-tacky graduate the same model student?