New Jersey Just Lowered Its Teaching Requirements—Again

It’s no secret that the demand for teachers is at an all-time high across the country. Teachers are being hired at record rates to meet the demand, but that’s still not enough, particularly in New Jersey. 

The Garden State is the latest state to lower its standards for hiring new teachers in what has become a concerning trend. New Jersey now will not require new teachers to meet a basic requirement of passing the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators—a test designed to show basic reading, writing, and math skills. 

For what it’s worth, 40 states require the Praxis.

Why New Jersey Just Lowered Its Teaching Requirements

The rationale behind this move—and the same reason behind all like moves from states like California and Arizona—is to make it easier to locate new teachers. 

That makes sense, but at what cost? Does it really make the most sense to bring in educators who don’t have to even show minimal knowledge at the expense of the next generations?

This is the second year in a row that the state has removed what it calls a “barrier” to becoming a teacher. The first step last year was removing the edTPA, which was an additional step student teachers had to take to prove their readiness to become full-time educators. 

There are still steps needed to be taken to becoming a teacher, so it’s not as though only ol’ person can come in and get in front of the blackboard—wait, do those things even still exist? The state still requires a bachelor’s degree with a GPA requirement, as well as an accredited teaching program with 175 field hours before landing a gig. 

So it’s not as drastic as it seems, but whenever less and less is required for positions, it can always result in less qualified individuals sneaking through. I guess we’ll see the ramifications of this—if there are any—down the road.