October 15, 2019
The Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education meeting on October 14, 2019 addressed the district’s curriculum changes and their goal of aligning the four elementary schools to prepare students for the rigor of middle school. One major goal is to choose new curricula to replace the currently used curricula. The process works like this. The committee narrows the choice to two programs, pilots of the programs are conducted in classrooms, then the final selection is made. Parents are then introduced to the new curriculum through parent nights, workshops and other interactive activities. This process took place earlier in 2019 for their science curricula and resulted in the adoption of the "Smithsonian Science for the Classroom", which will be implemented during the 2019-2020 school year. The Progress reported that the "inquiry-based, hands-on elementary curriculum is aligned with teacher expectations of incoming sixth graders at the middle school." Sixth grade teachers as well as elementary teachers were involved in its selection and development process.