Veteran and new teachers alike are expected to understand their students’ learning disabilities and make the appropriate accommodations. That’s why new teachers enrolled in with Rutgers Alternate Route invest time identifying and studying research-based practices and other resources that help their special education students excel.

These 11 articles are ones that new teachers enrolled with Rutgers Alternate Route have found helpful to their goals of creating an inclusive classroom for students with learning disabilities. We hope they will help other teachers who are looking to build supportive learning environments in which all students can thrive.

Teacher Appreciation Week is a beloved week for us at Rutgers Alternate Route, as we love celebrating our candidates past and present, as well as our trusted partners. 

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 8-12, 2023), many businesses are celebrating educators by offering exclusive discounts. Teachers can redeem coupons for school supplies, insurance and auto repair deals, clothing discounts, and more. 

In January 2022, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that seriously increased representation for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students and educators.

The bill ensures that the “contributions, history, and heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are included in the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Social Studies for students in kindergarten through Grade 12,” according to a press release from the Governor’s Office.

New Jersey is the second state to require AAPI history as part of its public school curriculum, following Illinois. By incorporating AAPI history into schools, students with AAPI heritage feel better represented and the material helps fight harmful stereotypes.

Cherry Hill High School West teachers, Gay Brown and Frank Gambino, are new to teaching but clearly have experience in the area professional collaboration, as the pair worked together to complete their Learner Development Project for a course I teach. Gay teaches English, and Frank teaches Art. Due to the size of their high school, it is a distinct possibility they may have never met without being colleagues in the Rutgers Alternate Route program. Their collaboration has now extended to becoming day-to-day working colleagues - sharing stories about students they have in common, creating interdisciplinary course threads, and supporting each other as they navigate teaching.

Stakeholders at various levels of New Jersey's K-12 system are bidding farewell to the edTPA, the Pearson assessment which, since 2017, determined the licensing fate of new teachers seeking entry into the profession. Following the lead of many states, including neighboring New York, the New Jersey legislature voted last spring to eliminate its requirement for new teachers to take and pass the edTPA amid mounting pressure from education advocacy groups and Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs). Universities and colleges represented by the New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education submitted statements for both Certificate of Eligibility with Advanced Standing (CEAS) and Certificate of Eligibility (CE) programs operated by their IHE members.