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In 1996, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) awarded a total of $10 million in three-year grants to local school districts in each of the state's 21 counties to create an Educational Technology Training Center (ETTC) as a county-based resource center that offered educators professional development opportunities in technology.

With the support of the twenty-four public school districts in Atlantic County, the Atlantic County ETTC was established at ÒùÐÔÊÓƵ. Because of its broad success in meeting program goals as well as the needs of local school districts, in July 2002, the NJDOE designated the Atlantic County ETTC as the Southern Regional ETTC and then went on to charge  to develop an institute devoted to the study and delivery of K-12 professional development.

By December 2002, the ÒùÐÔÊÓƵ Board of Trustees unanimously approved the establishment of the Southern Regional Institute (SRI), significantly expanding the programming available to the region.

More than twenty-five years after the creation of the Atlantic County ETTC, the SRI&ETTC Is thriving, and has become the primary provider of non-credit professional development for educators in southern New Jersey.

The success of the SRI&ETTC can be attributed to its consortium members and partnerships, to the quality and diversity of programming that is provided each year, and to a talented and dedicated staff. Over the years, the SRI&ETTC has grown considerably in its membership, workshop offerings, and program registrations which are clear illustrations of the value SRI&ETTC provides to the educational community.

In spring 2008, the SRI&ETTC proudly announced its reorganization under the new School of Education at ÒùÐÔÊÓƵ (the only ETTC to be part of School of Education).

Special Projects

The SRI&ETTC at ÒùÐÔÊÓƵ has provided high quality professional learning and management of numerous grant-funded initiatives for the past 27 years including projects that focus on technology, core curriculum areas, instructional practices, school leadership, and social and emotional learning. 

Current Projects 

Computer Science Coastal Hub

The SRI&ETTC received a two-year grant from the New Jersey Department of Education beginning in June 2022 through its Expanding Professional Learning: Computer Science for All funding initiative.  The CS Coastal Hub will expand access to computer science for all K-12 students by building a network of educators across the region who are prepared to guide their students as they develop understanding and skills in computer science.

The SRI&ETTC has developed a unique professional development model for the CS Coastal Hub that will offer the BIG ideas, the CORE ideas, and ADVANCED topics that will fully engage all K-12 teachers in order to:
- Increase the number of well-prepared, high-quality educators from diverse backgrounds to teach Computer Science.
- Expand equitable access to high-quality, standards-based Computer Science education for all K–12 students.
- Provide resources aligned with the 2020 NJSLS-CS to assist schools as they expand Computer Science education in the classroom or through extra-curricular activities across grades K-12.
- Workshops are available at no cost to K-12 educators. Visit the project website to learn more: https://stockton.edu/ettc/cscoastal.html

Click here to read the CS Coastal Hub News Article

Traumatic Loss Coalition Atlantic County

The Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth of Atlantic County provides educators, mental health and law enforcement personnel with a vital, supportive structure for networking to benefit our children and youth. The primary responsibility of the coalition is to provide assistance to school personnel as they manage significant losses and traumatic events that impact the school community.

The New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services (DMHS) has funded the project which is administered by the Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth Program (TLC) at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care.

Sheltered English Instruction: Online Professional Development

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) has collaborated with the SRI&ETTC to present The SEI Online: Teacher Professional Development in Sheltered English Instruction. This free online course, developed by the SRI&ETTC, allows educational professionals, school leaders and other stakeholders to participate in a 15-hour professional development program to explore the strategies and resources that support English Language Learners (ELLs) in the general classroom.

The course is based on the FABRIC paradigm, created by the NJDOE which supports teachers and administrators as they provide diverse groups of ELLs with access to classroom content while they acclimate to an English learning environment. The six learning threads of the FABRIC paradigm provide a structure that teachers can use to address the needs of ELLs. Each section contains research-based recommendations, a classroom example, and application questions. FABRIC can be utilized during sheltered instruction training, professional learning community meetings, pre-service teacher education, etc.

Click here for more information about The SEI Online

Atlantic County Audio Visual Aids (AVA)

Atlantic County AVA services are administered by the SRI&ETTC at ÒùÐÔÊÓƵ. It is the goal of the Atlantic County AVA is to bring cutting-edge multi-media educational technology services to the Atlantic County region.

The Atlantic County AVA supports districts’ access to Discovery Education which provides educators with the most advanced educational resources such as online video services, interactive digital textbooks, lesson plans and assessment materials in order to engage the twenty-first century learner and enliven the twenty-first century classroom. The Atlantic County AVA also offers workshops for AVA members on how to fully integrate the technologies found on Discovery Education into your classroom.

Previous Grant-Funded Projects Have Included: 

Three Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) Grants (3 years each) awarded by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE).  The MSP projects provided professional development in science content as well as associated topics in mathematics and technology to 22 school districts in the region between 2008 and 2018.

Two NJDOE Improving Teacher Quality Program Grants to provide systemic professional development activities to K-12 teachers during 3-year projects that focused on mathematics instruction in grades K-8.

A 30-month IMPACT Grant (Improving Partnerships and Active Collaboration for Teaching) from the NJDOE in 2010 to expand the number of teachers who were highly qualified in math and language arts, and increase the degree of integration of 21st century skills, technology, and global perspectives into their instruction. 

A two-year Formative Assessment Grant from NJDOE in 2014 to support participating teachers as they developed and implemented formative assessment practices in their classrooms. Specifically, teachers demonstrated increased use of formative assessment processes including the utilization of Common Core standards to guide learning targets, use of higher order questioning to check for understandings, strategies to provide quality feedback to students, the ability to scaffold learning of students, and purposefully adapting instruction to meet the needs of students. 

A 3-year Building Teacher Leadership Grant from NJDOE in 2016 to explore the continuum of support and mentoring provided during the pre-service experience through the initial years of teaching.

A four-year grant from NJDOE in 2008 to provide Intervention and Referral Services technical assistance, consultation, professional development, networking opportunities and resources to support school building and school district staff in the effective implementation of N.J.A.C. 6A:16-8, Intervention and Referral Services (I&RS) and the NJDOE’s best practices in support of N.J.A.C. 6A:16-8. The SRI&ETTC continues to provide fee-based I&RS training for school-based teams and for school administrators. For more information contact Courtney Regan, courtney.regan@stockton.edu.