The FANS Project began with a grant from the National Science Foundation to the New Jersey Mathematics Coalition. The Math Coalition, in partnership with the Department of Education, is in the process of providing up to 10,000 FANS workshops for 300,000 parents throughout the state. The FANS Project gives parents a firsthand understanding of what we're asking their children to know and do, and how they can become more effective partners in their children's school careers. The FANS model involves a 90-minute workshop led by trainers and attended by parents. Each workshop includes hands-on activities that are based on the standards and similar to those that their children are doing in class.
Parents leave the workshop with suggested activities that they can do with their children.
The newly announced FANS Project for Language Arts Literacy through Rutgers University will follow the model workshop and will be highlighted by an interactive training video. The new FANS Project for World Languages through Fairleigh Dickinson University is envisioned as a three-year program that includes preparing for and conducting the workshops. In addition, this project proposes recruiting world language teachers from prospective teaching candidates and from colleges and universities. The announcement of the FANS grants today marks the latest effort led by the state to implement the Core Curriculum Content Standards. The standards, adopted by the State Board of Education in May 1996, describe what students should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school.