Sewell School has partnered with Rowan University to become the 11th P-12 school to join the college’s Professional Development Schools, a national program to enhance learning development.
Members from Rowan University, Mantua Township Committee and Mantua Township School District Board of Education joined the staff and students of Sewell School on its blacktop area on the morning of Oct. 8 to witness the banner unveiling ceremony to officially celebrate the new partnership.
“We are both excited and grateful for our partnership and our efforts to join together with Sewell School and Rowan University’s College of Education,” said Sewell School Principal Jennifer Connell.
The partnership will focus on four pillars of teacher preparation and professional development. The first two focus on teacher development both before their career and also ongoing by working with university faculty members. Another pillar focuses on efforts to increase all students’ learning. Finally, the last pillar centers on research into teaching and learning.
The mission of Professional Development Schools aims to work with preschool to 12th-grade schools to help prepare teachers and faculty before and during their careers, improvement learning structures and enhance student learning.
“It’s a great opportunity to partner with local schools to support and help elevate teaching and provide ongoing professional development,” said Rowan University’s Dean of College of Education Gaëtane Jean Marie, who spoke during the ceremony.
These schools are more than just a way for future teachers to gain some experience. According to its website, “a PDS is an environment in which university students, faculty liaisons, classroom teachers, and students in the schools can engage in long-term, on-going research-based initiatives.”
Before Sewell School, Rowan’s PDS model involved 10 schools and six South Jersey school districts. Now, it includes 11 schools and seven districts. Below are the current PDSs and the year they started in Cumberland, Gloucester, and Burlington counties in New Jersey:
- 1999 – Holly Glen Elementary, Monroe Township School District, Williamstown
- 2010 – West Avenue School, Bridgeton
- 2012 – Cherry Street School, Bridgeton
- 2012 – Quarter Mile Lane School, Bridgeton
- 2015 – Thomas E. Bowe School, Glassboro
- 2016 – Dorothy L. Bullock Elementary, Glassboro
- 2017 – J. Harvey Rodgers School, Glassboro
- 2017 – West Deptford Middle School, West Deptford
- 2018 – Glassboro High School, Glassboro
- 2018 – Horace Mann Elementary School, Cherry Hill
- 2019 – Sewell School, Mantua
“This is just another feather in the cap of the Mantua Township School District,” said Mantua Committeewoman Eileen Lukens after the ceremony. Lukens was a Mantua Township school board member from 2009 through 2016.
