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Curriculum committee advances program-of-study updates, adds data science and agriscience courses
Summary
The district's curriculum committee reported proposed 2025–26 changes including a new data science course (noted as supplanting a 4th-year advanced algebra/trigonometry pathway for some students), agriscience additions and several proposed AP course offerings; board members sought clarification on math content.
The Northern Burlington County Regional School District’s curriculum committee reported on proposed changes to the 2025–26 program of studies, including new courses and sequence changes at the high school.
Board members were told the high-school course catalog updates would add agriscience options — including a crop rotation production course and an agriculture apprenticeship — and proposed new classes such as AP Seminar, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP African American History, Yearbook 2 and a data science course expected for juniors and seniors.
Committee members also reviewed a recent middle-school text controversy and discussed instructional models that allow student choice while ensuring state requirements and grade-level skills are taught. Dr. Jacquelyn Stella (director-level role referenced in the meeting) and other administrators presented a credit recovery option and an action plan to address chronic absenteeism because “more than 10% of the students” were labeled chronically absent under state definitions; the district must create and implement an action plan when chronic absenteeism exceeds that threshold.
Board members asked how the new data science course relates to the existing advanced algebra and trigonometry offering. Dr. Stella said the advanced algebra and trigonometry course had been a fourth-year preparation for college algebra, but the district expects a data-science pathway will better meet students’ career and postsecondary needs. She said the change sunsets the old course for some students but does not eliminate the underlying content — “sunsetting, but no, not replacing those content areas,” she said — and that algebraic and trigonometric skills can be incorporated into other pathways and meet state requirements when the course sequence builds on those skills.
The committee said the 2025–26 high-school program of studies will be on the January agenda for board review and the high school will hold an evening on Jan. 9 to present the changes to families.
