The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted K–12 education. School staff across the country faced the unprecedented challenge of delivering high-quality instruction amidst a global health crisis. In New Jersey, approximately 15% of K–12 public schools managed to improve proficiency rates in math and/or English language arts (ELA) on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment from 2018–19 (pre-pandemic) to 2021–22 (post-pandemic).

Richard M. Teitelman Middle School was one of those schools. RMT and Ocean City High School were the only two schools selected from Cape May County.

The findings of the research and site visits conducted last year were shared at a summit on April 7th at the Promising Practices Summitt. Mr. Daly was invited to present on how RMT used its Flex period to provide additional academic support and a wide variety of enrichment activities for students. He and Ms. Knudsen also presented on the new Student Support Specialist position, created last year to enhance mental health support for students.

Mrs. Dolinsky, a teacher who participated in the teacher panel interviews, also attended the conference and brought back ideas and best practices shared at the summit.