Brick Schools Chosen For Teaching Collaboration Pilot Program

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township School District was recently chosen to participate in a pilot program designed to help teachers collaborate more to help students learn and grow in math.

The district was accepted into the "Strengthening Teaching, Leading, and Learning" grant project, offered and funded through a partnership with the state Department of Education, the Overdeck Family Foundation, and the Foundation for Educational Administration. It is one of 16 districts in the state selected to participate in the three-year program.

The program aims to take specific curriculum standards and turn them into specific goals with lessons that help students achieve those learning goals. In Brick, the focus will be on Algebra 1.

Chris Thompson, supervisor of secondary-level math, and Danielle Ventrello, the math coach for the secondary level schools, applied for the grant in September; the district will begin to receive training for its Algebra 1 teachers in January.

Teams of educators from across the state, including Brick's English-language arts and math coaches, worked with the staff of state education department's Office of Standards and Assessment over several months to help translate standards into clear specific learning goals and place them into suggested units of study.

"The Strengthening Teaching, Leading and Learning Grant will give us an opportunity to support and develop meaningful collaboration for our teachers," Thompson said. "We are thrilled and honored to be a part of it."

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