As the 2014-2015 school year comes to a close, we are wrapping up our two-year long Using Formative Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning grant. The program was created and developed in close collaboration with Red Bank Borough Public Schools. It focused on advancing educators’ expertise in eliciting, collecting, and using quality evidence of student learning to drive targeted instruction in English Language Arts, and ultimately meeting the needs of the district’s linguistically diverse students. During the final professional development session, program participants were offered the opportunity to reflect on the program’s outcomes, and on the importance of promoting and sustaining practical understanding of student data and its role in informing evidence-based instructional interventions. The guest speaker, Cheryl Cuddihy, who served as the Red Bank program liaison during year one of the grant, helped to bring the achievements of the participants full circle.

We would like to thank the Red Bank teachers, administrators, and especially Stacy Sherwood, the District’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction, for their support and commitment to obtaining the goals of the two-year grant.