Join Us in Becoming Exemplary Urban Teachers
Our Mission
Rutgers-Newark Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP), consistent with the goals of thirty years of court mandated educational reform for the state of New Jersey, is to recommend for certification critically reflective novice teachers who are equipped to teach a racially, ethnically, economically, and linguistically diverse student population the necessary knowledge and skills for productive lives. To accomplish our mission, we must ensure that our teacher candidates have a firm knowledge of their content area, the foundations of education, and the roles of state and federal government in education, past and present. Our teacher candidates are provided with opportunities to become proactive, effective citizens who demonstrate the importance of social responsibility to the greater community throughout their experiences in the program. Unique to UTEP is our commitment to urban schools in general, Newark Public Schools (NPS) in particular. Our mission statement is infused throughout our Elementary and Secondary Education Programs and mirrors both New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and TEAC’s goals for preparing competent, caring, and qualified educators.
Our Vision
UTEP embraces the idea that public education is a means to empower people and is uniquely positioned to prepare teacher candidates to meet challenges for themselves, their communities, the state, our country, and potentially the world. Through the preparation of teacher candidates, the UTEP program has the ability to fundamentally alter the experiences of those attending public schools and thus the lives of urban students and their families in our city of Newark and throughout the state of New Jersey. Understanding the challenges posed to education in urban settings, our program undertakes the charge of preparing knowledgeable, capable, conscientious, caring teachers to serve the needs of urban youth in New Jersey, especially the Newark Public Schools (NPS) through an integrated program of teacher preparation. Beyond just preparing teachers for state certification in grade levels and content disciplines, the program sees a future in which the teacher candidates reflect on their own practices to improve their teaching, work collaboratively with colleagues to assist one another to improve teaching practice and, most of all, have the capacities, skills, and dispositions necessary to allow students to see their own potential and be capable of achieving their own goals in the future.
110 Warren Street
Bradley Hall - Room 174
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone: 973.353.3537