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Curriculum Showcase

Glows and Grows

August 2025

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Kelly Harmon, Director of Curriculum

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Tom Evancho, AP of Curriculum

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Curriculum Coaching Team

Sarah Gross (HTHS), ELA

Jessica Cappadona (MAST), History

Justine Lane (CHS), Math

Danielle Jensen (BTHS), History

Courtney Van Arsdale (CHS), WL

Amy McNamara, (CC) Shared Time

Wendy Green, (MAST) CTE Full-Time

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Curriculum Coach Glows

Curriculum Coach GLOWS

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• World Language Coach, Senora Van Arsdale hosted a “Snack & Share” for WL instructors across the state.
• Math Coach, Justine Lane collaborated with Texas Instruments to offer PD in-house on the newly acquired Navigator systems, helped develop Discrete Math course and design new CHS schedule.
• ELA Coach, Sarah Gross hosted a county-wide roundtable for middle school and high school ELA instructors.

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15 districts, 30 teachers

13 districts, 25 teachers

Curriculum Coach GLOWS

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• Science coach, Dr. Jensen conducted formative walk-throughs of non-tenured colleagues and wrote an article on using Zipgrade.
• CTE Coach, Wendy Green wrote several press releases while also observing non-tenured teachers and providing formative feedback.
• CTE Shared Time Coach, Amy McNamara facilitated campus tours and CTE conversations between MCVSD and OCTVS, herded a lot of cats!
• History Coach, Dr. Cappadona presented at the National Council for Social Studies Conference, NJEA, made the news twice, spoke at press conference about 9/11 Museum field trips, defended her dissertation!

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Coaches continue to be at the forefront of their field, piloting new initiatives, assisting with Genesis roll-over, modeling how to utilize interactive Samsung boards, presenting at state and national conferences, writing press releases, hosting monthly PLCs, leading summer programs, etc.

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Curriculum Spotlight

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2024-2025 Curriculum Spotlight

• Tinton Falls Nursing Bridge Program
• Propane Education Council Grant for Auto @ TF
• CTE Elevate Grant for Allied Health Program
• Elimination of Midterm Exams
• CHS’ Transition to Full Year Schedule

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New Courses Launching in 25-26

• Computer Science Principles, AAHS
• Principles of Inquiry and Data in Health Sciences, AAHS
• Chemistry for Law Enforcement, ALPS
• AP Art: Photography, CHS
• AP Seminar, CHS
• AP Spanish, CHS
• Foundational Exploratory CTE courses, CHS
• Discrete Math, HTHS
• Capstone STEM Experience, CHS, MAST
• Computer Applications & Manufacturing Processes (CAMP), MAST
• Fundamentals of Health & Wellness, TF
• Biomedical Engineering, TF :)
• The Science of Culinary, CEC

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Curriculum Vision & Goals for 2025-2026

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Curriculum Team Goals for 2025-2026

• Redesign pacing guides to remove midterms while retaining rigorous, standards-aligned finals.
• Build department consensus on benchmarks or alternative cumulative summative tasks for consistency.

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Goal #1 - Rework Curriculum and Assessment Plans to Maintain Rigor After Midterm Elimination

Curriculum Team Goals for 2025-2026

• Provide targeted professional learning for staff on AI tools relevant to each CTE program area.
• Showcase exemplary units and activities that effectively integrate AI while addressing ethical considerations.
• Support teachers in designing assignments that leverage AI for authentic, meaningful student work.
• Foster cross-school collaboration to share AI integration strategies, student work samples, and feedback cycles.

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Goal #2 - Build AI Literacy and Integrate Ethical, Industry-Aligned AI Practices into Curriculum

Curriculum Team Goals for 2025-2026

• Support teachers and principals in aligning curriculum and student pathways to facilitate strategic partnerships with Brookdale Community College and county agencies such as the Department of Public Works (DPW), with the aim of enabling more students to:
• Earn associate degrees earlier in Culinary Arts and Automotive Technology
• Access workforce opportunities in Heavy Machine Operation through DPW.
• Facilitate curriculum meetings between ST teachers to ensure clear program expectations and timelines are met.

Goal #3 - Support the Acceleration of Student Pathways to Degrees and Careers Through Partnerships with Brookdale and County Agencies

Curriculum Team Goals for 2025-2026

• Continue to facilitate and host roundtable sessions with department colleagues across the county, fostering open communication, collaboration, and alignment of instructional practices.
• Focus on ensuring clear articulation of curriculum—particularly in mathematics—to better prepare students, especially those in shore town communities, for the district’s placement and entrance examinations, as well as the rigor of higher-level math courses

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Goal #4 - Continue Vertical Alignment Conversations to Close the Learning Gaps

Curriculum Team Goals for 2025-2026

Goal #5 - Collaborate with the district data analyst to identify �and prioritize data needs that inform program evaluation �and instructional improvement.

• Review performance correlations (e.g., final exams vs. AP/IB scores) to ensure curriculum alignment and equitable student success across all schools and disciplines.
• Track enrollment trends across CTE programs, helping to forecast demand and advocate for new pathways or adjustments to existing ones.

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Curriculum Priorities (Not including new courses)

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Priority Curricula by School

AAHS

• Forensics
• Mind Body Medicine
• Sign Language

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BTHS

• AP Physics
• Bioengineering
• IB Chem HL II

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ALPS

• ELA IV

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Priority Curricula by School

HTHS

• French III
• Latin III-IV

MAST

• AP Physics C
• AP Physics 2
• Research I

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CHS

• Advanced Journalism
• Health IV

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Priority Curricula - Shared Time

• HVAC
• Welding
• Building Services
• Baking, CC

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Department Glows & Grows

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Glows - Ongoing Initiatives

• Productive, useful and differentiated PLC meetings
• Link to agendas
• Mentored and visited new teachers
• AI in science presentation
• MCVSD science best practices
• Continued progress of transition of curricula to ATLAS
• Scheduling and oversight of release time
• Facilitation of productive Biology, Chemistry, and physics release days
• Managing over 50 curriculum documents
• with particular attention to updating standards
• Science Conversion table
• Standards based assessments

Grows - Future Initiatives

• Using data to improve instruction
• Correlation analysis
• Continue to facilitate curriculum transition to Atlas
• Confirm all textbooks are board approved and in ATLAS
• Schedule release time for collaboration, priority or lagging curriculum
• Encourage the use of Atlas and viewing curriculum as a living document
• Model lesson plans
• Next step - intertwine curriculum and assessment
• Using ATLAS reports
• Schedule release time for standards-based exam creation and elimination of midterm
• Create guidelines for AI use in the sciences
• Assist with PD needs, collaboration and best practices
• Support new science staff

Science

English Language Arts

Glows -

• Hosted a county-wide roundtable to bring together middle and high school ELA teachers to discuss curriculum, student needs, and PD.
• 15 districts represented
• 29 attendees
• “Thank you so much for the informative session - I attended FTHS years ago to sit in on English classes, but this was so much more beneficial.”
• “Please do this again! It was great to talk about student needs and authentic solutions with colleagues from other districts.”
• “Wow! I learned so much I can take back to my district.”
• Researched and experimented with various AI tools.

English Language Arts

Grows -

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• Continue to focus on improving ELA curriculum
• Continue to diversify books studied in all classes
• Continue to study the effects of AI on student learning and growth in ELA
• Common ELA diagnostic for incoming students
• New Adaptive ELA Assessment

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Math

Glows - Ongoing Initiatives

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• Provide increased support to math teachers in the use of AI (Brisk, Claude, etc) and other technology tools, such as Navigator, Desmos Activities and AP Classroom to enhance their teaching and efficiency
• Address midterm elimination consistently across the district
• Increase student calculator expertise in all classes, especially Algebra 1, Geometry

Grows - Future Initiatives

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• Further vertical alignment of math curricula across Monmouth County
• Set a standard course progression - Algebra 1 or Geometry first?
• Close learning gaps between middle school and high school
• Monmouth County Math Conference

New NJPGA/NJSLA Format

• Adaptive Math Assessment, 2 sections
• Section 1 - Largely determines score
• Mixed non-calc & TI-84 calc
• Performance on Sec 1 determines difficulty level of Sec 2
• Section 2 - Refines score
• If student earns the easier 2nd section, score is capped.
• If students earns the more difficult 2nd section, score is not capped.
• Field tests for both in late Oct/early Nov
• If you would like FAQs and talking points, I can produce that for you.
• I need your help encouraging teachers to use calculators more.

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History ~ Glows

• USI, USII, & World History Release Days:
• What do our courses look with without midterms?
• Collaboration & creation of skills based assessment outside of traditional midterm structure
• Writing & source based
• Bank of primary source resources for cumulative writing in history
• Restructuring of USI category weights from 60/30/10 to 70/30
• More aligned with the upperclassmen history courses

History ~ Glows

CHS Teacher of the Year

Overall I’m proud of how I made my classes more real and relevant. Whether we were talking about budgeting in Financial Literacy, social issues in Sociology, or big moments in History, I focused on helping students see how it all connects. It was great to see them more engaged and applying lessons to real life.

All of my students know what the term habeas corpus means AND why it's important.

Implementing various uses for AI tools such as NoteBookLM, ChatGPT, etc. I also conducted Inquiry Projects which I plan to continue next school year.

Creating a passion among the students for political knowledge and a recognition that there is always another side to the politics of the day - the elected and the opposition; much the way it is today

Designed a new midterm and final exam that is more skills oriented as well as moved towards project based learning in my classes.

I did a more creative project, which is new for me, where students had to design a royal palace during our Absolutism unit. Second, I used the DBQ assessment we made in our pull out meeting on my final and I think it was a really good tool.

History ~ Grows

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• Implementation of new assessments in lieu of midterm exams
• Audit of current assessments
• Authentic inclusion and student literacy of AI
• Celebration of the Semiquincentennial

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World Language

Glows -

• Graduated Seniors 2025: 106 NJ Seal of Biliteracy with 86 Global Seal of Biliteracy
• Current numbers of graduating seniors for 2026 so far from spring testing: 121 with NJ Seal of Biliteracy of whom 95 also received the Global Seal.
• Roundtable was a hit!
• Peer observations

Grows -

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• Continue to align our instructional practices with the Seal Data
• Increase participation for Seal test
• Complete the AP audit, submit curriculum/syllabus and continue to grow the program.
• Because these students skipped from 3 to AP, a lot of prep will be required for them to be ready for this test in May.
• French and Latin curricula
• Continue to create authentic assessments and common rubrics

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85

40

60

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31

63

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100

85

106

91

78%

95%

85%

86%

CTE - Thematic Full-Time

Glows -

• Managed 70+ curriculum documents
• Scheduled release time
• Reviewed and provided feedback prior to curriculum approval.
• Inserted Transfer Goals
• Updated standards
• Encouraged use of AI to develop interesting activities
• Reviewed and updated grading policy changes with midterms omitted
• CHS committed to adding mini intro courses
• MAST committed to adding more coding and give all sophomores a shop experience.
• MAST has changed CAD to meet the VPA requirements.

Grows -

• Oversee 80 curriculum this next year due to exploratory courses added at CHS.
• Encourage more certification opportunities and community partnerships
• Encourage staff to get out and observe others.
• Encourage staff to host a round table with similar fields of discipline.
• Encourage staff to keep it real - find trends and applications for the learning
• Continue to facilitate curriculum transition to Atlas
• Schedule release time for collaboration, priority or lagging curriculum
• Use Atlas curriculum as a living document
• Keep pushing AI envelope
• Encourage authentic assessment - keeping it real
• Schedule release time for curriculum needs and observations within the CTE group
• Support new CTE staff

CTE - Shared Time

Glows -

• Completed and Board Approved:
• Electricity, Levels 1 & 2
• Applied Mechanical Engineering, Level 1
• Automotive Technology, Level 1
• CTE Math, Levels 1 & 2
• CTE Supplemental Academics
• Commercial Arts, Level 2
• Culinary Math
• Dental Assisting, Level 2
• Dining Room, Level 1
• Health Occupations, Level 2
• Varied format of PLC Meetings
• Using AI platforms to enhance materials and fit our unique program needs (Curipod, Brisk)

Grows -

• Facilitate collaboration with teachers from other districts ( Building Trades and OCVTS)
• Align lesson plans and units in Atlas
• Develop more certification opportunities and community partnerships

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Summer Program Spotlight

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Summer Enrichment Program Enrollment

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Revenue - $133,350

Salaries/Supplies - $75,173

Profit - $58,177

CTE & MCVSD Exposure - Priceless :)

Summer Programs at HTHS

Arduino Robot Programming 7

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CO2 Car Designing & Racing 14

Digital Circuit Technologies 11

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Intro to CAD Design 12

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Machine Learning with Python 18

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Programming for Beginners Using Python 24

Solar & Magnetic Levitation Technology 9

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VEX Robotics 31

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Website Design for Beginners 8

Summer Programs at AAHS, Annex, CEC, CHS,

Animate with Adobe Animate 8

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College Essay Writing 4

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Baking Adventures 6

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Film Fun for Middle Schoolers 7

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Study Skills for HS Freshmen 16

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Glam Camp 8

Summer Programs at BTHS, MAST, Tinton Falls

Auto in the Know 3

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Biotech Bootcamp 39

Ladies at Sea 16

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MAST Sea Stars 26

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Mechanical Applications 8

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New Summer Program Offerings

Summer Program Success & Future Directions

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Enrollment Growth

88% increase in enrollment from 2021 to 2025

Program Diversity

Expanded from 9 to 20 unique camp offerings across multiple disciplines

Future Expansion

Consider extending program duration based on parent feedback