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.

As the end of the school year creeps closer, it’s easy to lose sight of professional-development opportunities.

Conferences and webinars are simple ways to brush up on best practices, discover new methods to connect with students, network with other professionals and much more. Even better? Many professional-development events are free to attend!

As a gift to our educator community, we’ve put in the work and rounded up 24 spring conferences and webinars, from March to May. The majority of these opportunities are virtual and free, making professional development accessible for all.

Diversity in STEM has been a decades-long challenge for the United States workforce. As underrepresented communities gain access to more opportunities, however, diversity within STEM careers has grown - especially within the past decade.

Currently, women make up 35 percent of the STEM workforce. While there is still a lot of work to do to achieve true gender equality in the sector, the gap has shrunk significantly. For example, only 8 percent of STEM workers in 1970 were women, showing a big jump over the course of 50 years.