Priorities Collide at a High-Performing NJ School District
In response to some parents' and students' concerns of excessive stress in his high-performing school district, Dr. David Aderhold, superintendent of schools for the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in New Jersey, announced plans to ease pressure on students.
But while some parents cheered, others - especially those from the district's Asian-American community - decried the changes, saying they don't want the curriculum dumbed down.
Dr. Aderhold discusses the tensions between high academic achievement and stress, the ethnic divide and how things have been going since his announcement.
Then, Jennifer Lee, professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, and author of The Asian American Achievement Paradox (Russell Sage Foundation, 2015), who has studied many Asian-American communities like this one near Princeton, provides context for the different ways white and Asian-American parents expect their children to deal with serious academic pressure.
@brianlehrer As a 33-year vet teacher, I know homework-free nights are a joke. Still the same amount of work to do, just less time to do it
— Brian Hanson-Harding (@brianhh13) February 9, 2016
@BrianLehrer listening with interest in NJ.8th grade kid had 6 hrs of homework last night, due today. Pressure from district silly too !
— Deborah Ellis (@Britgirl8409) February 9, 2016
