How important is this to you? New Jersey teachers will now not have to pass a basic literacy test for certification.
When my first child was old enough to go to day school I set up a meeting and interviewed the director of the school regarding both her and the teacher credentials prior to enrolling my daughter.
I would assume there is a test of some kind for certification and they have to be able to read to pass it.
If I had young kids today, I would home school.
NY also removed this test as well. CA and AZ also lowered requirements for teachers during COVID. They are claiming some people just don't do well on standardized tests.
This post was edited by my2cents at January 6, 2025 7:54 PM MST
Anyone who cannot pass the standardized test..(all of them) should not be allowed to teach our children. I challenged the teachers of my last school I taught at...I aced all of the tests given to the students. None of the non-science/math teachers could pass the science/math tests.
This seemed a little suspicious to me. I found out the test they (and some other states) stopped requiring, isn't a basic literacy test. It's a core skills tests for educators. It is a multiple part test, requires going to a testing location which may not be convenient and paying a registration fee for each part. More than half of the test takers do not pass on the first try and have to repeat the process and pay the fees again. While it seems like a good idea to require the test, I can see where it can be considered a barrier to recruiting teachers during a shortage.
Teachers still need a college degree and have to pass tests for the subjects they will teach, so I think they will be at least literate.
Perhaps, a better way to end the teacher shortage would be to pay them more.
Paying them more is only part of the problem. Kids today are not taught to respect teachers (or anyone else, it seems). Much of how well a child behaves and learns in school starts in the home. Discipline in the school system is almost non-existent. You can't leave a child back if he doesn't learn the subject matter. You can't punish them for disrupting the class. Why would anyone want to do that job?
my2cents 