| abstract |
The landscape of New Jersey public school districts is filled with mandates. Each year, district administrators, school principals, and teachers are faced with implementing new mandates in classrooms across the state. Mandates set forth by state or federal governments often fail to be implemented and, ultimately, institutionalized in schools' standard operating procedures or their curricular and instructional frameworks because they are so far removed from classroom teachers and from those that develop improvement efforts and administer school district policy. New Jersey's Amistad law enacted in 2002, has suffered this exact fate.
The purpose of the 2002 Amistad legislation is to weave the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of African Americans into the fabric of New Jersey's social studies instruction. Implementation of the law, however, has been remarkably slow. Even with good faith steps taken over the past 20 years, the vast majority of school districts across the state have yet to fully implement the Amistad mandate.
While macro-level impediments to implementing the Amistad law are examined, this micro-level study will serve not only to acknowledge the monumental passage of the 2002 Amistad law, recognize its authors, and highlight its goals and objectives, but also to analyze the shortcomings of the implementation process and outline specific actions in a strategic implementation plan to ensure that all school districts across the state are fully complying with this landmark mandate.
For the sake of moving forward, the Amistad law's path from inception to implementation must be chronicled. Readily available statewide best practice models, districtwide readiness with regard to curricular and professional development, a system of accountability measures, and a strategic implementation plan are acutely needed. This groundbreaking mandate's injunction for schools to shift away from traditional, Eurocentric social studies curricula and instruction to a more representative and culturally-responsive model, especially in a profoundly diverse state, is certainly laudable and critical to the self-efficacy of all of New Jersey's students.
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