Meet the RACs

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Regions 1 & 2

Counties: Bergen, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Warren

Office location:

Passaic County of Education
501 River Street
Paterson, NJ 07524 [map]

Number of Priority and Focus Schools: 50

Executive Director: Scott Rixford

Bio: Scott Rixford serves as the Executive Director of the NJDOE's Region 1 & 2 Regional Achievement Center, Morris, Sussex, Warren Bergen and Passaic Counties. In this role, Mr. Rixford is responsible for guiding school improvement efforts and coordinating state services to the Priority and Focus schools within the region. Most recently, Mr Rixford worked for the NJ Department of Education as a network turn-around officer, supporting school turn-around under the federal School Improvement Grant program. He worked with the most challenged schools with noted success in results including Barringer High School in Newark improving their HSPA proficiency rates by 50% in Language Arts and 100% in math and Essex County Vocational School - West Caldwell campus's improvement that resulted in recognition as a national Blue Ribbon School in 2012. Prior to this work, Mr. Rixford was superintendent of schools for West Paterson. After an early career in the private sector, Mr. Rixford's began his education career with the Paterson School District. There he began as a middle school language arts and social studies teacher in several Paterson schools. From the classroom, Mr. Rixford became supervisor of professional development followed by becoming principal of the K-8 Alexander Hamilton Academy, where he transformed the failed Alexander Hamilton Charter School into one of Paterson's most consistently successful choice public elementary schools. Under his leadership, the school regularly showed student achievement of greater than 90%. He finished his tenure at Paterson by serving as an assistant superintendent with focus on special education and student support services. Mr. Rixford earned his BA cum laude from the University of Miami and a Master's of Education from Rutgers University. He holds certificates in principal/supervisor and superintendent and has earned various teaching credentials.

Meet the rest of the Region 1 & 2 staff