A+ Ideas, Programs, and Practices

Improving reading results in kindergarten and first grade is a desired goal for any school district. In Lumberton, the district saw success through a school board recognition program. The model included the use of a district goal, a board of education recognition program, an NJEA Pride Grant, a Reading Recovery grant and data analysis. The … Continued

Young students with special needs, in preschool through grade 2, gain responsibility, compassion and the chance to help others, through “Kindness from the Heart,” a program combining service learning and fine motor skills development at Benedict A. Cucinella Elementary School. “Often teachers struggle in providing creative and meaningful ways to develop fine motor skills in … Continued

The Black Horse Pike Regional School District, which operates three high schools, has gone green in a big way: installing arrays of solar energy panels; planting an organic garden; developing active “Green Teams” and changing light fixtures – some 20,000 of them , across the three high schools – to more energy-efficient ones. As a … Continued

An effective teaching team can benefit student learning. Sixth-grade teacher team members from Carl H. Kumpf Middle School, in Clark, have much to share about working as an effective team. The core elements of working as a team, the advantages of teaming, meeting logistics, effective teacher communication , parent outreach, strategies to ensure student success, … Continued

Montgomery Township’s district administrators and the Montgomery Township Education Association, with support from the Rutgers University School of Labor and Management, have formed a District Leadership Team. The team was created to foster a collaborative working relationship between administrators and staff across all aspects of the district, to positively impact student academic achievement and social … Continued

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing program at Governor Livingston High School was created in 1977 to provide learning and social opportunities for students in a highly-inclusive setting. One hallmark of the program has been the continued effort to evolve opportunities for students in all aspects of culture and the arts. As part of that … Continued

Communication needs have increased and become more complex for public school districts. Districts have a duty to educate and inform residents, in order to foster public awareness and support for the district and its strategic initiatives – as well as for its students and employees. Keeping residents informed also improves and safeguards the district’s reputation; … Continued

Assessments and the use of test data are a component of the educational process. As part of Springfield’s InnovateNJ project, the school district established a program to involve parents in developing a better understanding of their childrens’ test data. Springfield incorporated an ESL component that addresses the language issues families face when immigrating to the … Continued

The schools in the Freehold Regional High School District have invested more than four years in training School Improvement Panels (ScIPs) and a corps of faculty members, with the goal of driving positive change in the district. The groups act as facilitators, developing dialogue through the use of protocols discussing texts, data, successes, and lesson … Continued

Livingston students built snowmen – on computers – and more, during the district’s Hour of Code, held as part of the nationwide initiative sponsored by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org. The idea was to introduce students to computer science and computer programming, and the rapidly-expanding and increasingly-important field of coding. Coding is the art … Continued