NEA Chief Praises New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning as a Model of Teacher Initiated Education Reform

The Center’s Accomplishments in Advancing STEM Education Demonstrate the Power of Teachers as Leaders

ATLANTA - July 19, 2013 – The New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning® (CTL) has been singled out as an exemplar for the members of the world’s largest professional education association. As NEA president Dennis Van Roekel urged nearly 9,000 member educators to take a leadership role in education reform, he applauded the accomplishments of CTL.

Saying, “We need millions of educators to be given the opportunity to use their incredible talents and creativity to define solutions that work for students,” Van Roekel proclaimed the importance of teacher-driven efforts to improve student learning.

By highlighting CTL’s work, Van Roekel affirmed the value of its approach to dramatically improving STEM education.

Born out of the New Jersey Education Association in 2006, CTL, a nonprofit organization, improves STEM outcomes. Their teacher-designed solutions provide coherent k-12 math and science curricula that embrace new standards, raise teacher skill and satisfaction, rapidly and affordably increase the supply of STEM teachers, provide classroom technology and pedagogical techniques that work, and raise STEM attainment for a wide variety of learners.

Through its two main programs, The Progressive Science Initiative® and the Progressive Mathematics Initiative®, CTL has spread its pedagogy and curricula from its beginnings in New Jersey to schools in several states and nations on three continents. In fact, the NEA itself has helped fund the cost of spreading the Initiatives across America.

CTL’s approach has avoided the kind of recrimination that often blocks education reform. Because their programs are effective and affordable, and because they invest in teachers, the Initiatives enjoy wide support from corporations, teacher’s associations and unions, foundations, and bi-partisan ranks of elected officials.

Robert Goodman, Executive Director of CTL, expressed his gratitude for the NEA’s support in general and Van Roekel’s recognition in particular. “It is gratifying to be recognized for what we are: a teacher-led effort to give every student in America a fair shot at acquiring the critical thinking skills that math and science teach. Like the NEA, CTL believes that teachers can improve education as no one else can, engineering 21st century opportunity for all students, and promoting international competitiveness.”

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