New Jersey drops basic skills requirement for new teachers: 'Caved to ... union demands'

TRENTON, N.J. (CITC) — Aspiring teachers in New Jersey are no longer required to prove they are proficient in reading, writing and math.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Monday the elimination of the state's basic skills test requirement. Passing the exam was previously required for teachers to become certified if they did not score in the top one-third percentile of the SAT, ACT or GRE.

Under the new law, teachers can now skip the exam and instead receive an alternate teaching certificate. After four years of employment at a state-approved school, which includes public and charter schools, the educators will then receive a standard teaching certificate.

The elimination was long cheered by the state's teachers union, which called the basic skills test an "unnecessary barrier."

"It’s well documented that standardized tests are a poor way to measure knowledge or skills and that not all people are best able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on standardized tests," the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC). "If they can successfully complete an accredited degree and student teaching, a one-off standardized test is unnecessary and uninformative."

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However, others disagree, arguing New Jersey "caved to teacher union demands" by lowering standards.

"If teachers cannot read, write, and do math, they have no hope of instilling those skills in the rising generation," Angela Morabito, a spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute and former press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, told CITC. "Students and families deserve better."

"With reading and math scores in the tank, school choice and high standards are needed now more than ever," Morabito added. "Teacher unions stand in the way of both."

Ken Gardner, a retired high school principal, echoed Morabito on social media, asking "if the teacher cannot pass a Basic Skills Test, how can we expect them to provide quality education to our students?"

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The removal of the basic skills test requirement comes as New Jersey students struggle to recover learning losses following the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent results from the National Association of Educational Progress show math and reading scores have significantly declined for fourth and eighth-graders.

A June study of nearly 700 teacher preparation programs found most elementary school teachers are graduating ill-equipped to teach students how to read. Only 25% of prep programs nationwide cover all five components of scientifically based reading, while an additional 25% fail to adequately cover just one of the components.

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