Dist. 203 Hopefuls Look Hard at Curriculum

Apr 06, 07:51 PM

Current Headlines: By Melissa Jenco Daily Herald Staff Writer

Candidates for the Naperville Unit District 203 school board say there's always room for improvement in the district's curriculum, especially if it wants to be competitive globally.

From science to foreign language, each of the eight hopefuls has his or her own ideas for how to prepare students for the future.

Incumbents Mike Davitt and Suzyn Price and newcomers Jerome Buch, Daniel Denys, Steve Deutsch, Terry Fielden, Michael Jaensch and Fred Lu are competing for three, 4-year terms in the April 17 election.

"If we compared on an international level, I think you'd see our test scores in math and science and other areas are weak relative to other countries," Deutsch said. "And if we want our kids and the graduates of 203 to really be prepared to compete and be gainfully employed, we'll have to raise our standards even higher and aggressively examine the curriculum against the best school districts in Illinois, in the country and outside of the country."

He believes the district needs to update its curriculum in several areas - math, science, financial literacy, computers and foreign language.

Foreign language is an area in which all candidates stand on common ground. All have said they agree the district should consider adding a foreign language program at the elementary school level. A committee has recently recommended phasing in three types of programs for young students.

"I think that what I've seen of my own kids and the way they learn is that kids have an innate aptitude to learn foreign language at an early age," Fielden said. "Just in the cartoons they watch they pick up some Spanish and they understand what it means. So I think it's a really solid opportunity at the elementary level to increase that curriculum base and push it down there and allow the kids to learn better."

Jaensch, a member of the district's foreign language committee, supports constantly raising standards and focusing on more than just the core curriculum.

"One of the problems I have with No Child Left Behind is it consistently dwells on just science, math and English and there are so many other parts of learning, education - foreign language, applied arts, and stuff like that which are ignored," he said. "We do those but sometimes they get lost in the shuffle and as a board we have to make sure we are educating the whole person and that's something I would advocate."

Lu, however, said the core curriculum still needs improvement. While the district's test scores may be impressive locally, they're not good enough to compete globally, especially if Asian students' scores are removed from the totals, he said. To improve, he suggests raising standards, hiring the most qualified teachers and improving lab facilities.

"Make the kids think that math, science, engineering are basic skills. You have to have the basic skills," he said.

Price said the district needs to work on improving science test scores, which went down slightly on the most recent state tests.

"I do think we have mechanisms in place that help us continue to improve and help us look at continuous improvement," Price said. "I think our assessment for learning ... I think our seven-year curriculum cycle, I think our emphasis on literacy ... will help students improve even more."

Davitt believes another of the basics - reading - might be improved with smaller class sizes for younger students.

"First grade, I've read, is the most critical year for students reading. Building upon that ... perhaps we should start to look at class sizes at the first-grade level," said Davitt, who is running with Buch and Denys as the Taxpayers Ticket.

In order to determine which improvements to make and how to implement them, Buch suggested forming school board committees that can help with curriculum and other issues in the district.

"I think the committees need to be made up of blue-ribbon type people - educators that could help us sort it out," he said.

Denys said parents also should have more opportunities for feedback and the district needs to do more to help the average and just-below average students. He'd also like to see the district explore the idea of magnet schools and more college partnerships.

"I'm not going to come here and say this is how to make education better because that's not my specialty and that's not my profession," Denys said. "But saying that, I think the first step is the board needs to be fully briefed like a corporate board would on what education is. We can talk about taxes, facilities, teachers contracts but the number one product is the education."

mjenco@@dailyherald.com

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