In Gloucester City, New Jersey, the challenge was to improve student performance, particularly in math. Using SMART Board interactive whiteboard and Notebook software, scores increased by 16 percentage points.

When Tony Trongone joined New Jersey's Gloucester City Public Schools as the district math facilitator, the district was considered “low performing” under the adequate yearly progress standards of the federal No Child Left Behind act.

Knowing that the district superintendent, Dr. Mary Stansky, had started an initiative to improve student performance – particularly in math – Trongone approached her with an idea. He proposed adding SMART Board interactive whiteboards and Notebook software to Gloucester City's classrooms, explaining that these products would add the essential visual learning element that was missing in the current lessons.
“I wanted to increase the understanding of mathematical concepts and skills by adding another dimension of learning modality,” explains Trongone. “Most of the lessons were auditory and there wasn't a lot of visual learning going on.” The SMART Board interactive whiteboard added that visual element.

As an Abbott school system, a district in a low socio-economic area, the district receives state funding. With the help of this supplemental funding, Trongone was able to bring SMART Board interactive whiteboards into 35 of the district's classrooms.

With Stansky's support and commitment, Trongone went to work.

Math scores improve

Once the interactive whiteboards were in place, Trongone started creating math lessons in Notebook software. Then, he posted the lessons on the district's server, ensuring that all teachers could access the files from their computers and deliver them to their students using their SMART Board interactive whiteboards.

The results have been impressive. “We were a district in need of improvement and now we're out of that,” explains Trongone. Math scores in the district's middle school have also improved by 16 percentage points.

Trongone reports that the district's geometry scores also went up. “In the state of New Jersey we break math down into particular clusters. In the geometry cluster, the classrooms that had a SMART Board interactive whiteboard did significantly better. I think it's because the interactive whiteboard gave them a better representation of what things such as  the transformations of shapes would look  like spatially.”

“I think what's big is the fact that we literally have a whole school district using SMART Board interactive whiteboards on a daily basis,” says Trongone.

Unified curriculum created district wide 

Along with improving test scores, Trongone says making lessons in Notebook software available for all teachers to use on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard has helped create a unified curriculum throughout the district.

Over three years Trongone has created almost 1,200 lessons focused on math, reading, science and social studies – 140 lessons for each grade level from grade three to grade ten. Now, teachers use the SMART Board interactive whiteboard and Trongone's Notebook software lessons for a variety of subjects, including reading. “We scan the pages of a story, and then students sit around the interactive whiteboard and read the story aloud in class. Or we use streaming video to watch a movie,” he explains.

“I think what's big is the fact that we literally have a whole school district using SMART Board interactive whiteboards on a daily basis. We have 180 days of school during the year, and all 180 days teachers are using the SMART Board interactive whiteboard – every single day, every lesson.”

Trongone says using the Notebook files with the interactive whiteboards has been a big change in instruction within the district, but it's been worth it. “We've increased our students' capacity for understanding by adding the SMART Board interactive whiteboards to our classrooms.”

From SMART Technologies