SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

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1 THE NEW JERSEY NETWORK TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAPS-NORTH SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 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 was committed to collaborate with one another to support and nurture the school success of ALL of their students. In we are initiating a new regional network in northern Jersey The New Jersey Network to Close the achievement Gaps is a valuable regional resource that offers a venue where best researchbased and promising practices percolate practices 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, language and/or disability. (All Events Will Be Held At Bergen Community College, Technology Education Center, 400 Paramus Rd, Paramus, NJ 07652, Unless Otherwise Designated) Dr. Aaron Graham, NJNCAG Co-Director Educational Information & Resource Center 107 Gilbreth Parkway, Suite 200 Mullica Hill, NJ ag216@aol.com Dr. Robert L. Jarvis, NJNCAG Co-Director Penn Center for Educational Leadership Penn Graduate School of Education 3440 Market Street Room 504 Philadelphia, PA rljarvis@gse.upenn.edu Sandy Loewe Educational Information & Resource Center (EIRC) 107 Gilbreth Parkway, Suite 200 Mullica Hill, NJ sloewe@eirc.org

2 DIVERSE LEARNER CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES WORKSHOP Tuesday, October 13, 2015 Engaging And Empowering All Students For Learning David Ginsburg, Educational Consultant Ginsburg Instructional Coaching and Consulting Philadelphia, PA Teachers make countless decisions each day that affect children academically, socially, and emotionally. That s why they must know the effects their actions and words have on children, and make necessary adjustments to meet each child s needs. It s not enough to know that students are disengaged or disruptive. Teachers must know why students are disengaged or disruptive AND what to do about it. Student intellectual and social-emotional engagement with learning requires a shift from the traditional education paradigm. In particular, we need to shift the focus from instruction to student learning. Participants in this workshop will learn classroom practices that enable teachers to make this shift and, in turn, enable all students including those often perceived to lack the abilities, intellectual capacities, or motivations to learn to demonstrate their learning at the high levels demanded by the Common Core Standards. Participants will learn through reflection, discussion, and demonstration (modeling and classroom video) to distinguish instructional practices that support high level and engaged learning from those that stifle it. These classroom practices include structures, processes, and strategies that: empower students through an appropriate balance of ownership and accountability for their learning; help students unlearn "learned helplessness" by engaging them in "productive struggle;" and allow students to learn by doing rather than through traditional I Do - We Do - You Do lessons. David "Coach G" Ginsburg has served 22 years in schools serving diverse student populations as an award-winning math teacher and instructional coach in Chicago; school leader in Philadelphia; and consultant. He leads a team of accomplished educators that specializes in instructional coaching, leadership coaching, and Common Core implementation. David presents nationally on student-centered classrooms and instructional leadership, and will be a featured speaker at NCTM's 2015 conference in Atlantic City and 2016 conference in San Francisco. David holds M.B.A. and M.Ed. degrees, and is the author of the popular Ed Week blog, Coach G's Teaching Tips. Technology, Curriculum, Staff Development)

3 DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEADERSHIP FOR EQUITY WORKSHOP Thursday, November 12, 2015 Organizing For Excellence Through Equity: Building Our School Systems Capacities To Nurture The Success Of All Students Dr. Robert L. Jarvis, Director of K-12 Outreach and Equity Leadership Initiatives Penn Center for Educational Leadership Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA For the past twelve years, Dr. Jarvis has been actively engaged in working with multiple networks of school district leaders in PA, DE, NJ and NY in developing system-wide responses for improving the quality of school experiences for all students, and especially those children in our charge who have historically struggled in their school experience. Dr. Jarvis will offer a highly interactive session with district leadership teams that will focus on: addressing the organizational and educational challenges inherent in positively impacting pervasive preparation, opportunity and achievement gaps defined by race, class and gender examining the critical role of leadership at both the district and school levels in the work, and key questions that leaders need to be addressing with their stakeholder groups reviewing critical data that districts need to be disaggregating that defines the gaps and promotes and supports change sharing strategies for organizational and self-reflection and developing our theories of action for responding to our struggling or underperforming learners offering frameworks and perspectives for district organizing for excellence and equity sharing strategies for maximizing benefit from membership and engagement with NJNCAG Dr. Robert Jarvis currently serves as the Director of K-12 Outreach and Equity Leadership Initiatives for the Penn Center for Educational Leadership in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his current role at Penn he served as the manager for the SE Pennsylvania Standards Consortium. Before coming to Penn in 2001 Bob served as Associate Director for the Office of Professional Development in the SOE at Syracuse University, as Dean of Academic Affairs at Remington College in Lafayette, LA, as Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Outreach Programs for the SOE at the University of Portland in Portland, OR, as Director of Counseling, Career and Health Services and Coordinator of Learning Assistance Services at the University, and as a School Psychologist with the Portland OR City School District. At the University of Portland he oversaw and developed highly successful graduate degree programs in educational leadership and instructional development for K-12 teachers and administrators that were offered throughout Oregon, Washington, Canada, Hawaii and Guam. Technology, Curriculum, Pupil Services and Staff Development)

4 DIVERSE LEARNER LEADERSHIP, EQUITY AND SCHOOL CULTURE WORKSHOP Wednesday, December 16 Creating Protective Schools For Vulnerable Populations of Students: Fostering Resilience And Success Dr. Eddie Fergus, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development New York University New York, NY Education features prominently in most prescriptions of what is needed to address the economic and social challenges confronting American society. However, our policy makers and many in the new reform movement never spell out what type of education is needed to create a more just and equitable society. Rather than fostering equity and development, schools in American society have tended to reproduce the existing class structure and patterns of privilege. In this presentation we will explore how schools can be transformed to counter social inequality and promote academic achievement through three interrelated strategies: 1) instructional management with a data driven equity lens; 2) promote relational engagement between youth and adults; 3) education for economic and social development strategies that link learning to community development needs. This workshop will draw on research in schools and experiences in developing new school models that consider these strategies. These models include a common denominator of knowing how to conduct data-driven instructional management that focus on equitable outcomes. This workshop will provide participants an overview of various equity data analysis workbooks that cover topics such as disproportionality in special education and suspension, equity analysis of course grade passing and failure rates, and equity analysis of English language learner program outcomes. Participants will have an opportunity to use these workbooks in their own instructional management data structures as a means of creating more culturally responsive environments. For many years Dr. Eddie Fergus has provided technical assistance and analysis of education practice, policy, and research as they relate to educational equity. Prior to his current faculty role, Eddie served as the Deputy Director of the Metro Center for Urban Education at NYU. His work explores the effects of educational policy and practice as it intersects the lives of populations living in vulnerable conditions. Eddie consults on these policy and practice changes with state departments of education (e.g., California and Texas) and U.S. Department of Justice on disproportionality. Additionally, his publications include basic research on educational outcomes of populations in vulnerable conditions, and data workbooks focused on monitoring policy and practice changes. He has provided direct support to schools and school districts around the country in addressing the challenges of disproportionality of students of color in special education, and he is the author of Skin Color and Identity Formation: Perceptions of Opportunity and Academic Orientation among Mexican and Puerto Rican Youth. Technology, Curriculum, Pupil Services and Staff Development)

5 FAMILY AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP WORKSHOP Thursday, January 14, 2016 Targeted Capacity Building With Diverse Students And Their Families Dr. Joni Samples CEO & Chief Academic Officer Family Friendly Schools Chico, CA Why aren t certain families engaged with us as we would like? How do we begin a collaborative process that will assist both schools and families in developing trusting relationships that support our students learning? Dr. Samples has been asking and addressing these questions for years with schools and school districts across the country and internationally. Remember Kermit the Frog s song, It Ain t Easy Being Green? It isn t easy being green, brown, black, red, or yellow. It isn t easy living with a disability, not speaking English, or living in poverty. It isn t easy being a member of a sub-group of students who are not at a level of proficiency in English-Language Arts or math. It isn t easy being a parent of an academically challenged student. This workshop will provide participants with a tool kit of important how-to s: how to create/improve a welcoming environment for ALL families, how to engage families who have been historically disenfranchised, and most importantly, how to engage ALL families in supporting their children s learning at home. The workshop will give you tools for developing plans to work with parents of sub-groups of students who are not yet at or above proficiency, and nurture supportive family-school partnerships that underpin their accelerated achievement. Dr. Joni Samples is the Chief Academic Officer of Family Friendly Schools and comes to us with an impressive background combining academic credentials with practical service as a lifelong educator. She has served as a superintendent of schools, special education administrator, curriculum and instruction director, CEO for early childhood, coordinator of career and technical programs, and a teacher for regular and special education, as well as university teaching programs. Joni has been long recognized as one of our country s preeminent experts in the area of family engagement and has authored numerous books and articles about parent involvement in the education of their children. Family Friendly Schools is dedicated to helping schools and districts around the country to increase student achievement by developing networks of integrated relationships between leadership, staff, and families that creates a culture of high performance and learning outcomes. Technology, Curriculum, Pupil Services and Staff Development) Parent Leaders

6 SUPERINTENDENTS SHARING & PLANNING MEETING Theories of Action and Strategies for Change Date TBD 8:30am-11:30am This will be a highly interactive forum for NJNCAG-North Superintendents sharing of district successes, promising initiatives, challenges and key equity and excellence lessons learned. We will be focusing discussion on district leaders assumptions around root causes of underachievement in their districts, their implicit and explicit theories of action, and their strategies for implementing change. Participants will reflect on Network activities and affirm continued commitment and provide input for program planning for the school year.