12 New Jersey schools roll out LGBTQ curriculum pilot program

Wanting to learn from California's missteps and get ahead of the conservative politicians and anti-LGBTQ groups who vocally opposed the new law, proponents of New Jersey's LGBTQ curriculum were proactive."Developing curriculum for any topic is incredibly resource intensive, so we have designed a full curriculum that we're going to continue to expand, and we're going to get it to every public school in New Jersey that wants it completely free," said Jon Oliveira, director of communications at Garden State Equality, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group.He said his organization's goal is to ensure that an "LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum has wide adoption across the state." Unlike California's law, New Jersey's mandate leaves the specific curriculum materials and lesson plans up to individual school districts, not the state.The interdisciplinary pilot curriculum, which was written by New Jersey educators, goes beyond lessons about LGBTQ historical figures and their contributions, according to Oliveira. if this is not grounded in the realistic practice of a classroom teacher, we're not going to make the progress that we want to make with the spirit of the law," said Oksen, who has been a teacher for 22 years.Last March, Oksen and two dozen other educators gathered again for a three-day retreat at a Unitarian Universalist retreat center right by the beach town of Barnegat, where later in the year Alfonso Cirulli, the town's conservative Christian mayor, would call the LGBTQ curriculum law "an affront to almighty God." This time, with the law firmly on the books, the volunteers had a more concrete goal: to outline a plan to help teachers adapt to the curriculum mandate and brainstorm a collection of lesson plans and guidelines that would become the pilot program.The 12 elementary, middle and high schools from across the state were chosen based on a survey of interested schools, which gathered information on factors like administrative readiness and cultural competency training. It's talking about people's public lives."Along with helping public school teachers adapt their lessons to comply with the new law, the pilot program will also be a source of data for a research study that Oliveira and Oksen hope will make a supportive case for an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum.Garden State Equality and Make It Better for Youth are working with a team of researchers from Stockton University in southern New Jersey to measure the effect of the curriculum on individual student outcomes and on the cultural climate around LGBTQ identity in state public schools.