It Adds Up: Millburn Math Teacher Honored

MILLBURN, NJ - It wasn't a hard equation for the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New Jersey (AMTNJ) to solve as they chose Millburn High School Mathematics Teacher and Department Chair, Neil D. Cooperman, as the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Max Sobel Award for Outstanding Service and Leadership in Mathematics Education.

Cooperman received this recognition at the AMTNJ Annual Banquet at the National Conference Center in East Windsor on Thursday, Oct. 25.

"A high school education is about learning how to learn, understanding why things work the way they do, and becoming a self-sufficient and respectful citizen and active member of society," Cooperman said.

Cooperman graduated from Columbia High School in 1965 and completed his undergraduate degree at Rutgers College in 1969. That fall, he began his teaching career at Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey. After a brief stint on active duty in the US Army Reserves, he continued his teaching at Millburn Junior High School covering a six-month maternity leave. From 1971 to 1999, Cooperman returned to South Orange-Maplewood and taught in the school system from which he had graduated. After a short sojourn in Mahwah as the Mathematics Department Supervisor, he returned to Millburn in 2002.

This is Cooperman’s seventeenth year in Millburn High School and his ninth year as the Department Chair. Cooperman earned his Master’s Degree from Montclair State College in 1980.

Dr. Max A. Sobel, for whom the award is named, was an internationally renowned scholar who taught at Montclair State University preparing many mathematics educators to follow in his footsteps. Dr. Sobel wrote the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) response to the US Department of Education’s 1983 report entitled, “A Nation At Risk”.

Cooperman was encouraged to expand his professional involvement by his wife, Stephanie, another accomplished and recognized mathematics teacher and current President-Elect of AMTNJ. The two first met as sophomores in Honors Geometry at Columbia High School and have been married since 1987. Stephanie Cooperman was a student assistant for both Dr. Sobel and Dr. Evan Maletsky when she was an undergraduate at Montclair State College. Dr. Sobel and Dr. Maletsky were the first two recipients of the Max Sobel Award in 1990 and 1991, respectively. Both were also recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from NCTM.

The Coopermans were members of the team that wrote The New Jersey Mathematics Curriculum Framework, which was subsequently adopted by the New Jersey Department of Education as the first set of standards for the state. Mr. Cooperman began his professional activities with AMTNJ and started presenting at the state, regional and national level in the early 1990’s. In 1993, he received a National Dodge Award for Authentic Assessment from the Center for Learning, Assessment and School Structure (CLASS) under Grant Wiggins’ oversight. In 1994, Neil Cooperman was recognized as New Jersey’s Presidential Awardee in Secondary Mathematics. Subsequently, he was one of the original six authors who wrote the National Board Certification for AYA/Secondary Mathematics for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). In 1997, Cooperman served as one of three emissaries to Bulgaria on a National Science Foundation Grant to compare Geometry curricula.

Cooperman served AMTNJ as the state representative to NCTM from 2002 until 2009 when he was tapped to serve on the Affiliate Services Committee representing NCTM back to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. from 2009 to 2012. In 2010, he stepped onto AMTNJ’s leadership team and served as the 100th President of AMTNJ during 2014, its Centennial Year. Since 2016, Mr. Cooperman has resumed his role as the NCTM Liaison, and continues to serve AMTNJ as the By-Laws Committee Chair, as Co-Treasurer and as Conference Liaison. He is currently coordinating 45 full-day professional mathematics workshops on the Rutgers Campus, which are co-sponsored by AMTNJ, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) and the Rutgers Department of Mathematics. He also is the Co-Chair of the Annual Rutgers Precalculus Conference.

Back on the home front in Millburn, in addition to teaching Advanced Placement Statistics and serving as the Department Chair, Cooperman is the Math Club/Team Advisor, a role he shares with Rebecca Fiorillo, another Millburn mathematics teacher, and he has been the Key Club Advisor for the past seventeen years, ably assisted by Special Education teacher, Bridgette Nevola. In 2013, Cooperman received the Domenico Gatti Faculty Advisor of the Year Award from the New Jersey District of Key Club.

"Education is only fun and beneficial when one becomes thoroughly engaged in the process," Cooperman said, noting that he advocates for the principle that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing it well.

(Photos courtesy of the Millburn School District)

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