If you ask the New Jersey Department of Education how many teacher vacancies there are as school gets underway, they can’t tell you. That’s because, despite a new law which requires the DOE to file a report by July 2022, the DOE has yet to do so. 

This requirement is part of a bill, sponsored by then-Senate Education Chair Teresa Ruiz, that requires school districts to submit data to the DOE each year on their teacher retention rates.  Then the DOE must issue an annual report on the teacher workforce, including the number of vacant positions, new positions, eliminated positions, and anticipated retirements.

From the bill:

“The commissioner shall annually compile the data submitted 35 by school districts pursuant to subsection a. of this section in a 36 report that details the Statewide, county, and district trends in 37 teacher retention and includes any recommendations that the 38 commissioner may have on State actions that may be initiated to 39 improve teacher retention among various demographic groups. The 40 commissioner shall submit the report to the Governor, and to the 41 Legislature pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1).” 

In a Star-Ledger article last week, Robert Goodman, director of the alternative  teacher preparation program called New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning (NJCTL), comments, 

“To the extent it’s not pure panic, that’s because people are used to it being bad,” he said of the staff shortage. “If every year you open with a shortage of teachers, eventually you feel it’s normal.”

He said this is the second or third year students have had substitutes in some subjects for months or had teachers who are asked to cover extra classes.

“Eventually, it lowers the level of academics in the schools, and it’s cumulative,” he said, noting that a student can recover from having a below-average teacher for a year, but after multiple years of such teachers it’s “devastating.”

This past March, in an op-ed for NJ Education Report, Goodman described  a “calcified higher education accreditation system that functions almost like a cartel, keeping tuition high, graduation rates low, and newcomers out. In New Jersey in particular, the State Board of Education maintains archaic requirements for aspiring teachers.” 

Some of those archaic requirements have been dissolved, like the edTPA, a test that was a money and time-suck for aspiring teachers; the DOE is even offering a “fee holiday” to coach more teachers into the profession. Yet if the DOE doesn’t measure something—like teacher vacancies—that’s saying it doesn’t matter. 

Yet, of course, it does, as numerous districts, hunting to fill empty slots will tell you. What say you, DOE? Better late than never.