Business Faculty Collaborate with Teaneck to Enhance High School Curriculum

Supported by a New Jersey Department of Education Grant, Silberman College of Business faculty are building the “Tech Prep Program,” which is designed to foster collaboration on curriculum development among high schools and colleges.

Grant recipient and coordinator Ethné Swartz, entrepreneurial studies and chair, marketing/entrepreneurship (Flor), and Silberman College faculty have been engaged in curriculum development since fall 2008 and have been working with teachers at Teaneck High School and Bergen County Community College. Last month, the faculty met their discipline counterparts at the Teaneck School District offices to discuss the second year of the initiative.

Faculty participants include Richard Archambault, entrepreneurship (Metro); Scott Behson, management (Metro); Robert DeFilippis, accounting and chair, accounting/tax/law (Flor); Jonathan Goodman, entrepreneurship (Flor); Eleanor Ann Huser, marketing (Flor); and Maureen Kieff, quantitative analysis (Metro).

The program’s objective is to enhance business curricula at the high school level and provide opportunities for honors-level students in grades 10 through 12 to identify business courses that interest them and that they might wish to pursue at the college level. Additionally, through a sequencing of high school and college programs in grade 10 through the second year of college, students have the opportunity to earn dual credit in identified courses, resulting in college credits to be transferred from the high school to Bergen Community College and ultimately to FDU. Such transfer of credit is ultimately based on passing a validation examination given by Silberman College of Business.

Participants in the Tech Prep Program from FDU include (back row) Maureen Kieff, left, quantitative analysis (Metro); Eleanor Ann Huser, second from right, marketing (Flor); (middle row) Jonathan Goodman, left, entrepreneurship (Flor); Richard Archambault, second from left, entrepreneurship (Metro); Scott Behson, third from left, management (Metro); Robert DeFilippis, second from right, accounting and chair, accounting/tax/law (Flor); and (front row) Ethné Swartz, left, entrepreneurial studies and chair, marketing/entrepreneurship (Flor).

The high school phase of the program is taught by high school and/or college faculty and the college phase by the college faculty. The high school faculty should have credentials appropriate to be adjunct instructors at the college level, and in the case of FDU, at an AACSB-accredited college. Students taking the required courses at the high school level will be eligible to apply to Bergen Community College and then to FDU. The course syllabi, the requirements for course completion and the recommended sequence for the courses will be determined by FDU, Bergen Community College and Teaneck High School.

Teaneck High School will provide a list of students identified under the New Jersey College Credit Transfer, with FDU and Bergen Community College faculty having an opportunity to meet with them to provide additional information and answer questions.