How do we fix New Jersey’s teacher shortage?

By “reimagining the educator pipeline” to remove “unrealistic or unnecessary obstacles that serve as barriers to otherwise qualified individuals.”

That’s according to a new report sent to legislators (not released to the public yet) by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators that includes superintendents, principals, and supervisors. Although Gov. Phil Murphy has appointed a Task Force on Public School Staff Shortages that will create its own report, NJASA  got there first. The group recommends the following:

• Eliminate some prerequisites to getting teacher certification: No longer require a full year of student teaching, eliminate the EdPTA performance test, and axe the content test called PRAXIS. Instead we should “create alternatives to passing the PRAXIS Core basic skills exam for teaching candidates” and “reduce and lower dates to retake the test as candidates currently must wait 28 days to retake the assessment.” We should also “create an alternative option for candidates who fail the assessment multiple times.”
• Lower the GPA cut-off (currently 3.0) required in baccalaureate degree programs, higher degree programs, and state-approved post-baccalaureate certification programs.
• Establish “reciprocity”: this means allowing a teaching license in a another state to transfer to NJ without having to perform all the paperwork to get a license here. Also, get rid of the rule that requires NJ teachers to live in NJ.
• “Incentivize high school students to become teachers through grants, scholarships, and loan forgiveness.”
• Pay for prospective teachers to take the necessary tests, which can approach $2,000.
• NJ school districts can’t raise their budgets–more  specifically, raise the tax rate that property owners pay annually to schools — by more than 2%. So raise the cap (the report is a little vague on the numbers) to something like 4% in order to increase teacher salaries: “Addressing educator compensation cannot happen without a change to both the local school board of education’s taxing authority and the state’s funding formula.”
• “Recognize that the negative public discourse and political demonization surrounding public education and public educators have contributed to a reduction in the number of education candidates.”