new jesey network tyo close the achievement gaps - Penn GSE ...

THE NEW JERSEY NETWORK 

TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAPS 

2012-13 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES 

In 2007 the Penn Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and the 

Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC) came together to establish a regional 

network of school districts in southern New Jersey that is committed to collaborate together to 

support and nurture the school success of ALL of their students. 

The Network is a valuable regional resource that offers venues where best research-based and 

promising practices percolatepractices that address the critical areas of academic 

achievement, educational opportunity and equity. NJNCAG is uniquely positioned to systemically 

support school districts in eliminating the observed achievement disparities among subgroups of 

students defined by race/ethnicity, economic circumstance, gender and/or disability. 

James Bathurst, NJNCAG Co-Director 

Educational Information & Resource Center 

107 Gilbreth Parkway, Suite 200 

Mullica Hill, NJ 08062-4446 

609.472.2812 

Jim5001@verizon.net 

Dr. Robert L. Jarvis, NJNCAG Co-Director 

Penn Center for Educational Leadership 

Penn Graduate School of Education 

3440 Market Street Room 504 

Philadelphia, PA 19104-3325 

215.746.7375 

rljarvis@gse.upenn.edu 

Sandy Loewe, Associate Director 

Educational Information & Resource Center (EIRC) 

107 Gilbreth Parkway, Suite 200 

856-582-7200 

sloewe@eirc.org 

UPDATED 8/27/2012

2012-13 NJNGAG 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES 

SEPTEMBER 2012 

(All Events Will Be Held At The EIRC, 107 Gilbreth Parkway, Suite 200, 

Mullica Hill, NJ 08062-4446 Unless Otherwise Designated) 

September 28 SCHOOL COUNSELORS SHARING OF PROMISING PROGRAMS AND PRACTICES 

9:00-‐Noon 

OCTOBER 2012 

 

12:30-‐2:00 

October 4 

DATA AND ASSESSMENT TASK FORCE 

8:30-‐10:30 

HUMAN RESOURCES RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION TASK FORCE 

10:45-‐Noon 

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE PLANNING COMMITTEE 

12:15-‐1:30 

October 11 

DIVERSE LEARNER INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES WORKSHOP 

8:30-‐3:00 

Moving Mountains with Our Underachieving Students: How Explicit Thinking Instruction 

 

Sheryl Dwyer, National Educational Consultant and Managing Director, Comprehensive Thinking 

Strategies LLC, Orange Park, FL 

And 

Dr. Sandra Parks, National Educational Consultant, Author & Co-‐Founder of the National Center 

for Teaching Thinking, St. Augustine, FL 

UPDATED 8/27/2012

NOVEMBER 2012 

Thinking, like technology, is not a "curriculum," but rather a way to get better results at whatever 

learning task is at hand. The Common Core standards call for the type of instruction that builds 

knowledge and produces competent critical thinkers. Effective implementation will depend on how 

educators address the six instructional shifts that have emerged. This workshop is designed to reflect on 

these current shifts and examine how the explicit teaching of thinking strategies can spark the kind of 

cognitive development and intellectual mindfulness ALL students will need to develop in order to meet 

these expectations. 

Audience: 

• District Office Administrators & Staff (Assistant Superintendent, Directors, Consultants For 

Instruction, Technology, Curriculum, Staff Development) 

• Principals/Assistant Principals 

• School-‐Based Staff Developers/Coaches 

• Title I School Staff 

• Special Education Staff 

• Teacher Leaders/Coaches/Mentors/Team Leaders 

November 2 


8:30-‐3:00 

and 

Dr. Megan Tschannen-‐Moran, Professor of Education, College of William and Mary 

and Co-‐Founder of the Center for School Transformation, Williamsburg, VA 

In this hands-‐on workshop, participants will experience how a focus on strengths can build a 

collaborative and productive culture in schools working with challenging and/or diverse student 

populations. You will learn firsthand the power of the positive. Through one-‐on-‐one and small group 

conversations grounded in your best professional experiences while working with these populations, 

you will develop powerful images of schools at their best and design concrete action steps to innovate 

ways to make those images a reality. 

The evidence base for this workshop includes research on three powerful constructs that together do 

what few variables explored by educational researchers can boast: they explain student achievement 

above and beyond the effects of SES. These include high trust, a culture of strong academic press, and 

collective teacher efficacy. Trust brings out the best in teachers by facilitating greater collaboration, 

innovation, and more open communication, while trust in students fosters a more positive learning 

environment and less reliance on rules and punishments to keep order. 

A culture of academic press speaks to high expectations for students and the support mechanisms in 

place to assist all students to meet those expectations. It also reflects a high degree of respect among 

students for those who do well academically. Collective teacher efficacy means a deeply held belief 

among faculty that together they have the capabilities necessary to foster learning and engagement of 

ALL students. Parallel beliefs from the student perspective are also powerful predictors of student 

success. This workshop builds a bridge between these potent theories to the real world of your schools. 

Dr. Tschannen-‐Moran is the author of Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools and co-‐author of 

Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time with her husband, Bob. 

UPDATED 8/27/2012

DECEMBER 2012 

Audience: 








December 5 

December 18 

EDUCATORS OF COLOR NETWORKING SESSION 

5:30-‐8:00 

DIVERSE FAMILY-‐COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP WORKSHOP 

8:30-‐3:00 

 

Andrea Lawful Trainer, Family Engagement Consultant and Parent Leadership Facilitator, Abington, PA 

with Parent Leaders From Regional School Districts 

This interactive and engaging workshop is designed to share proven strategies that have worked in 

creating conditions in the school, home and community that facilitate tangible improvement in family 

involvement and student academic success. We will look at a framework for effectively addressing 

issues that often arise in schools with diverse families, and explore key elements for engaging effective 

family/parent partnership. We will address strategies for overcoming traditional barriers to meaningful 

parent/caregiver engagement through intentional coaching, building trusting and respectful 

relationships, 

misunderstandings and misassumptions. 

This workshop will give you practical and real-‐world tools for overcoming real and perceived obstacles 

to connecting with the people who 

academic success 

Audience: 

• District Office Administrators & Staff 



• ELL Staff 

• Parent Leaders 


UPDATED 8/27/2012

JANUARY 2013 

January 10 

January 23 

NJNCAG MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE 

8:30-‐2:30 

Camden County College 

Blackwood, NJ 


8:30-‐3:00 

Language Rich Classroom: Making Every Student an Active 

Learner 

Dr. William Himmele, Associate Professor of Education, Coordinator of the ESL Certificate Program and ASCD 

Author 

Millersville University 

Millersville, PA 

Based on his ASCD top ten bestselling book, Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an 

Active Learner, Dr. Himmele will share engaging instructional strategies that not only get students 

actively involved in their learning, but do so using higher-‐order thinking at all grade levels. He will 

present easy-‐to-‐roach to teaching that causes so many 

students to tune outor even drop out. He will model and present multiple interactive ways to engage 

all students in active learning and multiple ways to allow them to demonstrate the depth of their 

knowledge and understanding. He will explain both th participants 

experience field-‐tested techniques that support high level academic performance of all students, 

including English language learners, students receiving learning support, gifted students, and reluctant 

learners. 

Dr. Himmele is also co-‐author of The Language-‐Rich Classroom: A Research-‐Based Framework for 

Teaching English Language Learners with his wife Pérsida. 

Audience: 






• ELL Staff 



UPDATED 8/27/2012

FEBRUARY 2013 

February 5 

DIVERSE LEARNERS AND SCHOOL CULTURE WORKSHOP 

8:30-‐3:00 

 

 

Russell D. Morris Nationally Certified School Psychologist & Adjunct Instructor 

Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 

This workshop will focus on identifying and providing effective solutions to addressing some of the 

thorny and socially complex issues often confronting school staff in working with African-‐American and 

other non-‐majority students in predominantly majority schools. An experiential rather than theoretical 

approach will be taken to highlight and examine some of the personal, professional and systemic issues 

that tend to create barriers between students of color, their families and the staff that are in place to 

support them. Strategies for breaking down those barriers will also be discussed. 

Audience: 

• District Office Administrators and Staff 


• School Counselors, Social Workers, Nurses, Psychologists 


February 13 

February 14 

SCHOOL COUNSELORS SHARING OF PROMISING PROGRAMS AND PRACTICES 

9:00-‐Noon 

DATA AND ASSESSMENT TASK FORCE 

8:30-‐10:30 

HUMAN RESOURCES RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION TASK FORCE 

10:45-‐Noon 

UPDATED 8/27/2012

MARCH 2013 

March 6 


8:30-‐3:00 

 

Delia Garrity, National Education Consultant, Author and Former Assistant Superintendent in the 

Rockville Centre School District 

Rockville Centre, NY 

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) provide a unique opportunity to open academic doors to ALL 

students, including special education students, English Language Learners, low SES students as well as 

high achievers. The proper implementation of the CCSS has the potential to close both the achievement 

and opportunity gaps in our schools. 

Our researched-‐based ACES framework for instructional improvement will prepare all students for 

college and career readiness. The four ACES Acceleration, Critical Thinking, Equitable Practices, and 

Support are natural allies, and when used to inform curriculum, teaching, and instructional design 

features they together create a synergy that levels up instruction in a way that will effectively bring ALL 

students to college and career readiness levels. 

This workshop will highlight practical K-‐12 curricular perspectives, instructional strategies and lesson 

plans that provide examples of how to implement the four ACES. Each lesson will be linked to the CCSS 

to deepen each participants understanding of the standards and how they can be realized in K-‐12 

lessons in a way that invites all to learn in a challenging, meaningful way. 

Delia is co-‐author with Carol Burris, High School Principal in Rockville Centre, of two important books in 

our field: Detracking for Excellence and Equity (ASCD, 2008) and Opening the Common Core: How to 

Bring ALL Students to College and Career Readiness (Corwin, 2012). 

Suggested Audience: 






• ELL and Special Education Staff 


March 6 

 

3:00-‐4:30 

UPDATED 8/27/2012

APRIL 2013 

April 27 

3 rd ANNUAL NJNCAG EDUCATOR OF COLOR RECRUITMENT FAIR 

9:00-‐1:00 

TBD 

DELAWARE VALLEY MINORITY STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT CONSORTIUM -‐ COLLEGE BOARD 

SCHOOL DISTRICT EQUITY LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM 

Philadelphia, PA 

MAY 2013 

May 15 

EDUCATORS OF COLOR NETWORKING SESSION 

5:30-‐8:00 

2012-‐13 

NEW JERSEY NETWORK TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 

MEMBER DISTRICTS 

Berlin Borough/Gibbsboro Anthony Trongone, Superintendent Camden County, NJ 

Bridgeton Thomasina Jones, Superintendent Cumberland County, NJ 

Delsea Regional Piera Gravenor, Superintendent Gloucester County, NJ 

Deptford Township Ralph E. Ross, Interim Superintendent Gloucester County, NJ 

Glassboro Mark Silverstein, Superintendent Gloucester County, NJ 

Lower Cape May Jack Pfizenmayer, Superintendent Cape May County, NJ 

Lumberton Township Terry Healey, Superintendent Burlington County, NJ 

Middle Township Michael Kopakowski, Superintendent Cape May County, NJ 

Monroe Township Charles Earling, Superintendent Gloucester County, NJ 

Pennsauken Township Marilyn Martinez, Superintendent Camden County, NJ 

Rancocas Valley Regional Gerald Jellig, Superintendent Burlington County, NJ 

West Deptford Kevin Kitchenman, Superintendent Gloucester County, NJ 

Wildwood Dennis Anderson, Superintendent Cape May County, NJ 

Woodbury Joseph Jones, Superintendent Gloucester County, NJ 

UPDATED 8/27/2012

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