New Jersey Department of Education

Rutgers CESP and the Rutgers Department of Computer Science will establish and maintain a professional learning hub in the central region of New Jersey with the goal of providing educators access to differentiated and sustained CS Education professional learning opportunities. We aim to further build capacity in NJ to provide high-quality, rigorous, and engaging CSE that emphasizes computational thinking and interdisciplinary problem-solving to all its students across the K12 spectrum. We will also purposefully cater professional learning to our partnered districts via a needs-assessment and review, creation, and implementation of a district vision, and work closely to increase intentional inclusion and expansion of CSE in new grade bands. All participating educators will participate in a virtual community of practice and can receive coaching, weekly office hours, peer-led teacher working groups, and attend periodic community meetings.

CESP will work in concert with sister hubs at Farleigh Dickenson University and Kean University to best coordinate efforts and maximize the impact of this project. The non-profit organization CS4NJ will also work closely with project staff to coordinate and disseminate professional learning opportunities to actively recruit and engage new educators in the hub. This $250,000 project, funded by the New Jersey Department of Education, began in April 2021, and is scheduled to end in August 2022.