Arik Samson’s Response to BOE Candidate Question 3: Academic Achievement

Oct 20, 2024

Mr. Samson’s Response to the Third in a Series of Questions to the 2024 Berkeley Heights BOE Candidates

I have touched on the proficiency issue in my answer to question #2.

In order to achieve proficiency we need to focus on two things.

First, good teachers, which need to be properly compensated in order to retain them. In that answer I also touched on where I see fit the budget lion share should go: teachers compensation and didactic material, not administration. As it was pointed out, the school administration has been steadily growing, while student rolls have not.

Second, discipline. There needs to be an environment conducive to learning. While children learn to socialize while on school property, the purpose of schools is learning. Teachers have to impose discipline and demand respect, while the administrators must support them in that feat, not cater to parents.

There has to be a paradigm shift.

While striving to improve our schools ranking, the real focus in that mix should be the proficiency factors, in order to best prepare students for the life ahead of them. If we achieve that, some of the other ranking components will automatically also improve, while others will become become less important.

We need to have open and honest discussion in how to remedy the proficiency deficiency problem. In my opinion, proficiency is gained through quality teaching and reinforcement, in a disciplined environment.

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Read Arik Samson’s Response to Question 1 ( Transparency) and Question 2 (Budget Priorities)