Robert Goodman, the 2006 New Jersey State Teacher of the Year, is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning.  As the science chair and a teacher of physics, chemistry, and environmental science at the Bergen County Technical High School in Teterboro, NJ from 1999 to 2009, he founded and led the development of the Progressive Science Initiative® (PSI®) and, later, the Progressive Mathematics Initiative® (PMI®).  

Bob was a member of the New Jersey Task Force on College and Career Readiness; NEA’s Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching; a Content Expert Reviewer for Achieve; a Field Reader for the United States Department of Education; and a member of the Education Advisory Committee for the Liberty Science Center.  In 2007, Bob received the I CAN Learn – NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, and the NJIT College of Science and Liberal Arts Award for Outstanding Efforts in Education in 2017.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his undergraduate research was published in an article he co-authored for the Journal of Applied Physics. He received his Master of Arts in Teaching Physics from SUNY Stony Brook, and his Doctorate in Science Education from Rutgers University, where Kappa Delta Pi awarded him the 2006 Delta Xi Award for outstanding dissertation.

Before becoming a teacher, Bob had a twenty-year career in the electronics industry which included serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Harman Kardon, JBL Consumer Products, and Onkyo International Operations.