New Jersey

New Jersey's drive towards global learning focuses on foreign language proficiency and teacher training and professional development. Read on.

World Languages

Districts are required to have a K-8 world language program that provides students with the opportunity to meet the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standard for World Languages. Additionally, all high school students are required to take at least one year of a world language or meet the Novice-High proficiency benchmark on a department-approved assessment. The Administrative Code requires that districts actively encourage all students who have otherwise met the high school graduation requirement to include five credits of world language study during each year of enrollment in high school.

New Jersey has a long history of identifying model programs in world languages. Districts that have been named model programs serve as resource centers for other districts providing a venue for those districts to see quality curriculum, instruction, and assessment in world languages in action. See current model programs. The application to become a model program can also be used as a program self-assessment.

Teacher Preparation and Professional Development

Kean University
The School for Global Education, housed within the College of Education at Kean University, was created in response to the demand for 21st century educators who possess the knowledge and skills to prepare their students for life and work in a multicultural, multilingual and digitally-connected world. The vision of the School is aligned with Kean University’s mission to provide students with a world-class education. Learn more about the School for Global Education.

Rutgers University Graduate School of Education
Under the leadership of Mary Curran, PhD, the GSE has sponsored the Teaching the World Forum. Through the support of a Longview Foundation grant, the project originally engaged educators involved in teacher training from Rutgers University in integrating global perspectives into their respective courses and programs. This year, the initiative grew to a state-wide focus and included projects from educators from Kean University and William Paterson University as well as Rutgers. Two student teachers were involved in the Kean University project while a professor from William Paterson University facilitated collaboration among professors and students in Namibia and Guyana with counterparts in the United States. The Rutgers project engaged social studies teachers in a local district in articulating global content from kindergarten through high school.

The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey offers several Global Graduate programs.

Common Core

The State Board adopted the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics on June 16, 2010. During the summer of 2011, the New Jersey Department of Education, in collaboration with their counterparts in Washington and West Virginia, sponsored a three-part series entitled Connecting to the Common Core. The institute was offered in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual sessions. Participants from other states were invited to participate in the virtual sessions.