Building Stronger Starts for NJ Kids
The pandemic exposed deep inequities across communities, including critical gaps in literacy for young Latino children. In a new post for the Rutgers-Camden Faculty Blog, Associate Professor of Spanish Silvia Perez-Cortes—who will soon serve as Graduate Program Director for the Teaching Spanish (MAT) program—shares the story behind A Rutgers Collaborative Helps New Jersey Kids Get “Ready and Healthy for Kindergarten”. She details her work on an eight-week family literacy program launched during 2020 to support Latino children and their families as they prepared for school.
Perez-Cortes, the only linguist and language development specialist on the interdisciplinary Rutgers team, designed sessions to foster both academic and socioemotional skills in a bilingual environment that encouraged heritage language maintenance. Families engaged with medical and educational professionals in their preferred language, building routines that supported health, well-being, and early literacy. Now in its third year, the program has reached approximately 300 Latino families across New Jersey, offering a model for collaborative approaches to bridging opportunity gaps.
Read the full post on the Rutgers-Camden Faculty Blog to learn more about how this initiative continues to make an impact.
Related to this Story:
Teaching Spanish MAT: Preparing Educators for Tomorrow’s Spanish Classrooms
The Rutgers–Camden Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) Spanish program equips students for careers in K–12 education and community colleges, offering practical training for teaching Spanish in bilingual settings. The program accommodates both fluent Spanish speakers from diverse backgrounds and Anglophone students seeking to enhance their Spanish fluency. Graduates gain advanced language skills, intensive pedagogical training, and cultural sensitivity, preparing them to meet the needs of their academic and cultural communities. This comprehensive approach, combined with immersive Spanish-language instruction, distinguishes the program from others in the region, preparing graduates to excel as Spanish-language educators in diverse educational environments.
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