Fact Checking Dr. Varley’s “Exciting News” Email on NYT Article and BHPSNJ Math Proficiency

BHCW received the following email from a parent to the BOE regarding an email Dr. Varley sent this morning with a NYT PDF.  In this email, Dr. Varley appears to celebrate what the NYT data demonstrates.  Here is a copy of the email text:

Good evening,

I’m deeply confused at what you have categorized as “exciting news” in your district-wide email earlier. 

The PDF you sent is a skewed report on data demonstrating that Berkeley Heights is, in fact, underperforming compared to neighboring districts while maintaining the highest per-pupil cost. Was there data missing from the PDF which supports that Berkeley Heights is doing as good or better than our neighboring schools?

The data referenced in the article was only for grades 3-8 in one subject.

Instead of a link to the article, to compare other districts, you provided a 1-page PDF.

But there’s enough to interpret and digest even on this one-page snapshot.

In Math, Berkeley Heights is the lowest ranking of the 4 area schools, with a consistent decline from 2019-2022 and an ever-so-slight increase from 2022-23. 

In 2016, Berkeley Heights and New Providence ranked in the same spot.

Since then, New Providence schools have been excelling in supporting Math education and hold the top spot.

In 2017, Berkeley Heights and Chatham were in the same spot, but Chatham has continued improvement, while Berkeley Heights has had a steady decline, with a minor improvement over the last school year.

The data for Summit is somewhat consistent with Berkeley Heights in Math proficiency but still doing better than Berkeley Heights.

Chatham, which started at the bottom of the pack, is now second to New Providence, and slightly above Summit.

Berkeley Heights remains at the bottom.

This report demonstrates what me and others in the community have been saying for the last few years: we must focus on improving our declines by addressing what the problems are. 

I’d like to better understand why you wanted to highlight this content with such a narrow focus after ignoring it for almost a year?

Dr. Varley’s email is rather astonishing given the available data that the community has been discussing for almost a year.  Recently we published preliminary results on 2023 that will need to be validated by the NJ DOE Performance reports:

Given our policy connected to volunteer organizations that move to remove volunteers for offering an opinion on local government, we are keeping their names on this matter confidential.  We have verified the confidential source for this article and have met with him/her face to face.  

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