Urban Connections and Outreach
Department of Urban Education
The Abbott Leadership Institute (ALI) http://www.abbottleadership.org is a division of the Department of Urban Education at Rutgers-Newark. ALI provides classes and other activities to build capacity in parents and community residents, including students, to advocate for school reform in Newark and to become effective leaders to meet the challenges facing education in Newark, such as, return to local control, participation in the superintendent succession process, and the school funding issues. ALI developed the Newark Education Website, abbottleadership.org, and the Youth Media Symposium. ALI became the umbrella for the Committee of Advocates, which brings together leaders from the philanthropic, corporate, non-profit, and higher education communities to become a credible voice and source of information on the educational needs of children in Newark. Currently, teacher education students attend ALI activities.
The faculty and staff of the Department of Urban Education are all working to improve opportunities for Rutgers-Newark and NJIT students within the Teacher Education Program and Newark Public Schools.
Teacher Education Collaboration for High School Needs – NJ (TECHS-NJ): The TECHS-NJ Noyce Scholarship program is a collaboration between Rutgers-Newark Department of Urban Education, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the Newark Museum, and Newark Public Schools. These partners bring together undergraduate programs; high quality professional development; service activities; and resources for students who are preparing to be secondary teachers in the crucial areas of math, science and technology. The program coordinators are Dr. Arthur Powell and Joya Clark (PhD student) from Rutgers-Newark and Dr. Jim Lipuma and Bruce Bukiet from NJIT. The TECHS-NJ program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. For more information please visit the website http://techsnj.njit.edu.
NPSSIM & MetroMath: Dr. Schorr is currently the Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on grants totaling over 16 million dollars (funded by the National Science Foundation). One grant, the Newark Public Schools Systemic Initiative in Mathematics (NPSSIM), partners Rutgers University-Newark and the Newark Public Schools to effect systemic change in mathematics teaching and learning at the K-8 level throughout all of the district's public schools. The second, entitled the MetroMath Center for Mathematics in America's Cities partners Rutgers University (Newark and New Brunswick) with the University of Pennsylvania, the City University of New York, the New York City Public School System, the Newark Public Schools, and the Philadelphia Public Schools. MetroMath has two main goals - research and the development of leadership in urban mathematics education
(http://www.metromath.org). These grants combine both research and
implementation, which are not regarded as separate activities.
Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP): Most of the courses students take for teacher certification involve fieldwork and hands-on experiences in Newark and Newark Public Schools. This semester for example students in Social Foundations of Urban Education will be visiting the New Jersey Historical Society, Newark Public Library, Newark Museum, and ALI sponsored colloquiums. All students in the secondary Methods course are working one-on- one with teachers in classrooms at Central High School as well as tutoring students after school. This semester the Elementary and Secondary Practicum students are completing their field placements at:
- Cleveland Avenue School
- Ivy Hill
- Newton Street
- Mount Vernon
- Sussex Avenue
- Science Park High School
- University High School
- Malcolm X Shabazz
- Arts High
- Central High School
For the final experience, student teachers are completing their clinical fieldwork in the following Newark Public Schools:
- Mount Vernon
- Ivy Hill
- Cleveland Avenue
- Sussex Avenue
- University High School
- Malcolm X Shabazz
- Central High School
- Science Park High School
Office of the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
325 Hill Hall, Newark, NJ 07102
