The Teacher Education Program at Ramapo College of New Jersey is offered through the School of Social Science and Human Services which is fully certified by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The Ramapo program is approved by the New Jersey State Department of Education under the standards established by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. Teacher preparation candidates are prepared to become student oriented teachers who design high quality learning activities to meet a broad spectrum of learning styles and learning needs.

The Teacher Education Program at Ramapo College is TEAC accredited through May 2020.  Ramapo College is located ideally for access to field experience opportunities. Many outstanding urban, suburban, and rural school districts are within a reasonable distance from the college and are most generous in their efforts to support high standards in teacher preparation.

Please note: Legislative mandates will require that all students, regardless of date of admission into the TE Program or requirements in effect at the time of admission into the TE Program, have at least 50 hours of clinical experiences in the TE Program beginning 2017-18.  These mandates will also require that all students, regardless of date of admission into the TE Program or requirements in effect at the time of admission into the TE Program, be required to complete two consecutive semesters of clinical practice—semester one consisting of 175 hours met in conjunction with methods courses and semester two consisting of 525 hours of “student teaching.”  The TE Program faculty, along with the Assistant Dean, are working on ways to meet these newly established mandates. It is imperative to remain in close contact with both the TE Program and your TE Program advisor regarding your plan to complete the program during the next several years as courses may be renamed, renumbered, or deleted or created in order to ensure compliance with these mandates.

Ramapo College Office of Teacher Education Handbook (PDF)

TE Program Application Checklist (PDF)

The Ramapo College of New Jersey Teacher Education and Certification Program is committed to the preparation of teachers who are highly competent in their academic disciplines and instructional skills. Our program, aligned with the New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers, and nationally accredited by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), prepares students at the undergraduate and post-baccalaureate levels to be teachers who model reflective, innovative behavior while demonstrating love and enthusiasm for life-long learning.  The Teacher Education and Certification Program at Ramapo College seeks to ensure that teachers are prepared to communicate effectively, establish productive relationships, and respond to the needs of individual learners, the teaching profession, and the greater community in a fair, equitable manner.  Finally, our program emphasizes the needs of a democratic society.  We are preparing teachers to be leaders in the effort to make the world a safer, more compassionate, and more productive place where respect for all life, for our environment, and for the dignity and diversity of all people will be common priorities.

Summaries of the Teacher Education and Certification Program and its performance are available to the public and can be found on the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) webpage and the Title II webpage:

http://www.teac.org/wp-content/uploads/CaseSummaries/Ramapo_College_Teacher_Ed_Case_Summary.pdf

Title II Summary Pass Rates, 2016

New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers: Introduction and Summary of Current Proficiencies as of May 2014

Effective May 5, 2014, the New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers have been updated to incorporate current research on teaching practice, new understandings of learners and the learning process, and to align to the 2011 Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Model Core Teaching Standards. These standards:

• Describe the performances, knowledge, and dispositions that teachers need to be effective in supporting college and career readiness for all students;
• Outline the principles of teaching practice that cut across all subject areas and grade levels and are necessary to improve student achievement; and
• Serve as the common foundation for pre-service teacher education, certification, induction and mentoring, educator evaluation, and professional development.

Fundamental Understandings

The following fundamental understandings anchor the content of the standards:

• Teaching and learning are dynamic processes. Instruction is rooted in integrated and reciprocal classroom practice, and educator effectiveness is closely tied to student learning.
• Expertise in teaching develops over time. While the previous standards were geared more to beginning teachers, these standards are rooted in professional practice across the continuum of teacher development.
• 21st century skills are fundamental. Teachers need to foster students’ curiosity, creativity, innovation, problem solving, global literacy, communication, and interpersonal skills. Students need to understand technology and ethics and be able to synthesize information across disciplines.
• The focus must move from teachers’ teaching to learners’ learning. Teachers must acquire and apply the knowledge and skills to customize and personalize learning for learners with a range of individual differences.
• Assessment literacy is an essential skill. Teachers need to have greater knowledge and skill around how to develop a range of assessments and how to use assessment data to improve instruction and support learner success.
• A collaborative professional culture improves teaching effectiveness. We can no longer treat teaching as an isolated activity. When teachers collectively engage in participatory decision making, designing lessons, using data, and examining student work, they are able to deliver more rigorous and relevant instruction.
• Teachers should embrace leadership roles. Teachers should advocate for their own and their students’ needs, actively investigate new ideas to improve teaching and learning, participate in the collaborative culture, and advance the profession.

Integrated Themes

New to these updated standards is the inclusion of key themes across multiple standards. In some cases, the theme is not explicitly stated but can be inferred from the description of the knowledge, disposition, or performance within the standard. The integrated themes are as follows:

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Creativity/innovation
• Critical thinking/problem solving
• Cultural competence
• English language learners
• Families and communities
• Individual differences
• Interdisciplinary/multiple perspectives
• Professional Learning
• Student-directed learning
• Teacher responsibility
• Technology
• Use of data to support learning

Adaptation of the 2011 InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards to the NJ State Context

Although the updated NJ Professional Standards for Teachers closely track with the 2011 InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards, they are not identical. Some changes in language and organization were necessary to align the standards with New Jersey law, the prior state teaching standards, and statewide priorities. The complete text of the 2014 NJ Professional Standards for Teachers with highlights showing the divergence from the 2011 InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards can be found on the TE Luminis group page as the document entitled teacherstandardscrosswalk.2014.

Organization

The standards are now organized under four domains:

Domain One: The Learner and Learning

Standard 1: Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

Standard 2: Learning Differences: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.

Standard 3: Learning Environments: The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

Domain Two: Content

Standard 4: Content Knowledge: The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches, particularly as they relate to the Common Core Standards and the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.

Standard 5: Application of Content: The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.

Domain Three: Instructional Practice

Standard 6: Assessment: The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.

Standard 7: Planning for Instruction: The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.

Standard 8: Instructional Strategies: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

Domain Four: Professional Responsibility

Standard 9: Professional Learning: The teacher engages in ongoing individual and collaborative professional learning designed to impact practice in ways that lead to improved learning for each student, using evidence of student achievement, action research and best practice to expand a repertoire of skills, strategies, materials, assessments and ideas to increase student learning.

Standard 10: Leadership and Collaboration: The teacher engages in ongoing individual and collaborative professional learning designed to impact practice in ways that lead to improved learning for each student, using evidence of student achievement, action research and best practice to expand a repertoire of skills, strategies, materials, assessments and ideas to increase student learning.

Standard 11: Ethical Practice: The teacher engages in ongoing individual and collaborative professional learning designed to impact practice in ways that lead to improved learning for each student, using evidence of student achievement, action research and best practice to expand a repertoire of skills, strategies, materials, assessments and ideas to increase student learning.

Outcome 1: Content Knowledge.

• Ramapo College program completers understand the subject matter they intend on teaching.

Outcome 2: Pedagogical Knowledge.

• Ramapo College program completers understand pedagogy and can convert subject matter knowledge into compelling lessons that meet the needs of diverse learners.

Outcome 3: Caring and Teaching Skill.

• Ramapo College program completers are caring and competent beginning professionals.

Undergraduate Students:

• Completion of appropriate entrance exam with minimum state-mandated scores.  Please contact the Teacher Education Program for information on which exams are appropriate for program entry.
• Admission interview with Assistant Dean of TE program.
• Completion of all requirements for Graduation including a minimum of 128 credits.
• Completion of all requirements for a Major.
• Completion of all General Education requirements.
• Completion of all the School Core requirements for the school of the designated major.
• Completion of courses (which may be in addition to a major) which are needed to fulfill the state requirements of a minimum of 30 credit hours in the Endorsement area and to fulfill Ramapo College program requirements for the Teacher Education sequences within individual endorsements.
• Maintenance of a State mandated GPA.  (Please visit E-232 for information on current GPA requirements).
• Submission of edTPA, a performance assessment instrument completed during the final semester of clinical practice (student teaching).
• Completion of courses required (or equivalents approved by the Assistant Dean of Teacher Education) for certification.

Please Note: Certain courses require program permission to be granted prior to the preregistration period for the semester of planned enrollment. Please see your Teacher Education Program advisor or the Assistant Dean of Teacher Education for additional information.

*Program requirements change to meet State requirements.  Please contact the Teacher Education Program for the most current information.

Students seeking the elementary education endorsement may select a major in any of our disciplines in the Arts and Sciences.  For example, majors in art, history, literature, mathematics, music, psychology, and science are all appropriate for pursuing this endorsement.  Students choosing this program DO NOT major in elementary education.  This means that the curriculum for teacher certification is a very ambitious academic program.

Teacher Education courses and/or course options required for endorsements in the following disciplines:

1. Transfer students who have 48 or more credits accepted at the time of transfer are waived from the courses marked with a (W) below.  Waivers only apply to General Education Requirements NOT School Core or Major Requirements.
2. Double counting between General Education, School Core, and Major may be possible.  Check with your advisor to see if any apply.
3. Writing Intensive Requirement (six courses):  three writing intensive courses in the general education curriculum are required: First Year Seminar, Critical Reading and Writing, and Readings in the Humanities; the other three courses are taken in the major.
4. Not all courses are offered each semester.  Please check the current Schedule of classes for semester course offerings.
5. The Career Pathways Program requirements must be completed prior to graduation.  Visit the Cahill Career Center.

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION MAJOR