{"id":12103,"date":"2023-06-12T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=12103"},"modified":"2023-10-11T15:29:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T19:29:37","slug":"the-standard-bearers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=12103","title":{"rendered":"The standard-bearers"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey repeatedly <\/span>ranks as a top state for education. And now it seems to be setting the pace for new standards, too. It is the first state in the nation to create specific learning goals for climate change education in the earliest grades, information literacy, and Asian American Pacific Islander awareness. Behind the scenes, TCNJ faculty and a librarian brought their expertise and passion to help get these standards on the books. Here\u2019s how they are influencing New Jersey\u2019s K\u201312 school students.<\/p>\n

The content connector<\/strong>
\nLauren Madden, education professor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHere in New Jersey, the effects we see of climate change are pretty magnified compared to a lot of other places geographically,\u201d says Madden. \u201cThere are teachers that I\u2019ve worked with in Asbury Park, for example, who teach classes that include multiple students who have lost homes in storms.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when New Jersey became the first state to adopt learning standards for climate change in all grade levels and subject areas in 2020, Madden was eager to help teachers across the state implement lessons that would satisfy the standards when they went into effect last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s somewhat easy to teach about climate change during science lessons,\u201d says Cari Gallagher MEd \u201903, a third-grade teacher at Lawrenceville Elementary School. \u201cBut the new standards call for an interdisciplinary approach. How can we bring it in through other subject areas?\u201d<\/p>\n

Madden is no stranger to answering such questions about K\u201312 standards. Since 2013, when the state adopted the Next Generation Science Standards that included climate change concepts at the middle and high school levels, Madden has been a leader in demonstrating ways to incorporate them into lesson plans. That includes training TCNJ\u2019s pre-service teachers so they are ready from the start to address these issues in their future classrooms.<\/p>\n

For these newest standards, Madden reviewed the science content for the New Jersey Department of Education and is now making sure teachers have easy access to age-appropriate materials. \u201cThere was some concern that teaching climate change to our youngest learners could be scary,\u201d she says, referring to images of storm-destroyed homes or polar bears on melting ice caps. But working with Subject to Climate, an organization that compiles teacher-vetted resources into the New Jersey Climate Change Education Hub, Madden is able to direct teachers to information that is accurate, but doesn\u2019t go to doom and gloom scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cLauren is always looking to connect people,\u201d says Gallagher. \u201cShe\u2019s not only strengthening the education of TCNJ students, but forming relationships in elementary schools so that we feel confident while teaching in our classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The information influencer<\/strong>
\nEwa Dziedzic-Elliott, TCNJ librarian<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ewa
Ewa Dziedzic Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dziedzic-Elliott, who grew up in Poland and attended elementary school as her country was shifting its political system from communism to a more democratic state, says she saw how information could divide generations. Those who were in school during communism, she says, held on to the mistruths that they were taught.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorians were uncovering primary documents and proving something different, but those who grew up with the other stories just couldn\u2019t let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Dziedzic-Elliott fights for today\u2019s American students to be information literate. And it\u2019s why, in 2020, she joined the executive board of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, a group who had been working on writing legislation that would require New Jersey\u2019s K\u201312 students to learn how to retrieve and evaluate information for academic purposes. Dziedzic-Elliott met with consultants and state legislators to push the bill through.<\/p>\n

Governor Phil Murphy signed the legislation in January 2023, making New Jersey the first state to define the skills students need to accurately assess information and to use it effectively. \u201cInformation literacy is more important now than ever before, especially with the growing prevalence of social media and online news,\u201d says Angelica Allen-McMillan, Murphy\u2019s acting commissioner of education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is absolutely a need to make sure that students develop those research-readiness skills before they come to college,\u201d says Dziedzic-Elliott. Next up for her is the fight for all schools to have a certified librarian because that is who is highly trained in the research methods students will be expected to develop.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vowing for visibility
\n<\/strong>Yifeng Hu, <\/strong>communication studies professor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Yifeng
Yifeng Hu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yifeng Hu testified in December 2021 during a press conference and rally at the New Jersey State House in Trenton, urging lawmakers to pass a bill that would include the stories of Asian American Pacific Islanders in K\u201312 education standards. \u201cNot only is it imperative to make the young generation more aware of AAPI struggles, but it is equally crucial to celebrate AAPI contributions in the U.S. society,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As she spoke, it was with thoughts of the six Asian Americans who were killed in the spa shooting spree in Atlanta; the racist rhetoric surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s start in China; her AAPI students, who say they are often called \u201cforeigners;\u201d and her own son, who was once spat at because of his racial identity.<\/p>\n

New Jersey has the third highest population of AAPI in the nation, according to Make Us Visible NJ, an organization dedicated to the inclusion of AAPI people and events in public education. The standards, which Governor Murphy signed into law in January 2022, will ensure that their stories, histories, and rich cultures are included in the state\u2019s learning goals.<\/p>\n

Gabriella Son \u201922 joined Hu at the State House. She says the standards would have made a difference in her own education had they existed when she was younger. \u201cI remember being disengaged when learning the story of our nation in elementary school,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you don\u2019t see people with your cultural identity in the history you learn, the message is clear: \u2018Here are all the great American heroes \u2014 except you can\u2019t be one of them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks in part to Hu, that will no longer be the case.<\/p>\n

Pictures: Peter Murphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TCNJ faculty make an impact on what New Jersey\u2019s K\u201312 students will learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":12106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12103"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12405,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103\/revisions\/12405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}