Bill > A554

Introduced Session

This bill provides that, beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, all candidates for teaching certification who have completed an educator preparation program at a commissioner-approved educator preparation program provider will be required to satisfactorily complete a course or training on anti-racism in education. The bill also directs all commissioner-approved educator preparation program providers to review and update their educator preparation programs to implement the bill's requirements and submit the revisions to the Department of Education for approval. Under the bill, the program provider will be required to provide to the department copies of any syllabi developed for a course or training on anti-racism in education and the titles of any texts that will be required of students for completion of the course or training. The program provider will also be required to post the syllabi and titles of course texts on its website. The bill does not require syllabi and course texts to be approved by the department. Under the bill, and beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, any person seeking certification through the alternate route will be required to, within one year of being employed, satisfactorily complete a course or training on anti-racism in education. As used in the bill, "course or training on anti-racism in education" means a course or training that: (1) recognizes the importance of diversity and inclusion in teaching effectiveness; (2) develops the racial literacy of an educator, which includes the skills and practices by which educators can probe the existence of racism and examine the effects of race and institutionalized systems on their experiences and representation in society; (3) encourages teachers to examine their own biases, assumptions, values and expectations of students and those embedded in course design, pedagogy, and course content; and (4) offers an explanation of how race, racism, and the particular racial formations that develop in and around the classroom and school affect grading, teacher feedback, student discipline, and school decisions on student admissions and placements.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)*,  Sterley Stanley (D)*,  Michael Venezia (D)*,  Bill Spearman (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document