The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is urging the state to revise its standards for educators, arguing that requirements to prove competency in basic skills are “unnecessary barriers” that do not promote equity.
Currently, New Jersey mandates that individuals seeking teacher certification must pass the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators, a basic skills test assessing proficiency in reading, writing, and math. Alternatively, educators can submit their SAT, ACT, or GRE scores as proof of competency.
The NJEA, a prominent teachers union in the state, argues that this requirement should be eliminated, asserting that it acts as an unnecessary impediment and contributes to a lack of equity in the education system.
In an official statement, the NJEA stated, “Last year, New Jersey eliminated the edTPA, a barrier to becoming a certified teacher. Now it’s time to eliminate another barrier: the basic skills test for teachers.”
“When the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) adopted changes to the administrative code around teacher certification, it missed an opportunity to eliminate this requirement, which created an unnecessary barrier to entering the profession,” NJEA explained in its statement.
The call for reform comes amidst a longstanding shortage of public school teachers, a crisis exacerbated by the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute concludes that the teacher shortage is primarily concentrated in specific subject areas and geographic locations, refuting the notion that there is a lack of qualified teachers overall.
“The shortage is not a function of an inadequate number of qualified teachers in the U.S. economy,” the Economic Policy Institute concluded. “Simply, there are too few qualified teachers willing to work at current compensation levels given the increasingly stressful environment facing teachers.
