Educational programs in two New Jersey school districts were recognized with School Leader Awards  at the New Jersey School Boards Association’s Delegate Assembly on  May 14.

“The main focus of any school board is to improve student achievement,” said Raymond Wiss, NJSBA president.  “The School Leader award winners exemplify the innovative approaches that New Jersey schools are using to teach our state’s children.”

The two winners, along with three programs which were selected for Honorable Mention awards, were drawn from 13 entries to the School Leader award program.

The judges based their evaluations on the level of innovation, how well the program addresses specific needs, how it coordinates with the state’s Core Curriculum Content Standards and the results of the program.

Judges for this year’s awards included John Bulina, NJSBA vice president for legislation/resolutions; Anne H. Gallagher, communications director for the New Jersey Association of School Administrators; and Nancy Michell,director of marketing and web content, New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. Judges did not evaluate entries from any districts with which they are associated.

The winners:

Passaic Valley Regional High School, Contemporary Issues through Videoconferencing  The program, which serves approximately 100 students, uses videoconferencing technology to link students to their fellow students in other countries, and to link the students with experts on various issues.  Programs presented to the students include a dialogue with widows from Afghanistan, a conversation with actor Michael Douglas on his work with the United Nations, and an in-depth conversation with a doctor from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. The students  have also conversed via videoconference with students from Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, and India. The Passaic Valley students developed a special relationship with students from Ghana, who ended up traveling to New Jersey, staying with host families for a week, attending school at Passaic Valley and going on a field trip to New York City with the American students.

Piscataway Township Schools, Project HealthLinks   Middle school students in Piscataway participate in a remarkable series of intensive field experiences that are designed to introduce the students to careers in the medical field and to healthy lifestyle. This year the group of 30 students have watched a live-streaming of neurosurgery at Liberty Science Center, met a heart transplant recipient, have spoken with biomedical engineers at NJIT who assist people with physical disabilities, organ transplans and strokes. Besides the field experiences, the students engage in rigorous literacy and critical thinking activities that include active listening, oral presentations, and interviews with leading professionals. They also explore health care policy issues, career challenges and rewards and educational requirements for the various professions.

Project Healthlinks, which was started 10 years ago, was originally designed for African-American students to meet professional role models in the field of medicine. The program has since expanded to include Latino, Asian and Caucasian children who submit competitive applications for the program and agree to maintain their schoolwork and grades while enrolled.  About 90 percent of the students are non-white.  

In addition there were three School Leader Honorable Mentions awarded :

• Bergenfield School District, Nursing Apprenticeship Program
• Livingston School District, Heritage Middle School FemGineers
• Ridgewood School District, Ridgewood Academy for Health Professions

Additional  information on the programs will be published in School Leader magazine.