By Michael Hill
Correspondent
When it comes to improving classroom learning, New Jersey operates on this premise as Commissioner David Hespe puts it: teachers have the greatest influence on student learning.
So, New Jersey has rolled out a voluminous list of ideas to better prepare men and women who want to teach in the Garden State — partly because of what teachers themselves say.
“60 percent of national candidates who graduate from Education schools are saying they were not adequately prepared. They said their preparation did not adequately prepare them for the classroom realities,”said New Jersey Department of Education Assistant Commissioner and Chief Talent Officer Pete Shulman.
Shulman proposes big changes for those who come to the profession with a teaching degree and those who would come in non-traditional ways, such as changing careers.
Among the changes: doubling the teaching time of education majors in college from a semester to a full school year and requiring substitute teachers to have bachelor degrees.
“Too many of them are not ready for the realities of the classrooms that they are being put in to,” Shulman said.
Requiring career changers to pass a performance assessment and get hours of classroom training.
“We need that individual who may be a brilliant scientist working at Bristol Meyers who wants to come in and teach our kids to have some exposure to kids prior to them stepping in to a classroom. To think otherwise of how that would be done whether you’re an attorney or C.P.A. or physician to think that you would have no experience to the clinical setting in which you’re going to operate to me sounds quite absurd on face value,” said Shulman.
But, one board member wondered if some proposals are too stringent and would discourage some from entering the profession.
“Does it crowd out sort of a very slim minority? We think the cost benefit of rising the tide and raising the bar and really making it more in line for the majority is worth potentially crowding out that minority,” Shulman said.
Groups that represent New Jersey’s teachers told the state Board of Education what they think of the plans.
“We like the idea of a longer student-teacher program, a longer practicum period, but are concerned about the ramifications that might have on students. If we’re going to move forward with that it should be pushed back a year at least so it would count for entering freshman so that students who are midstream in a program shouldn’t have the rules changed on them,” said Francine Pfeffer of the NJEA.
“Some of the information that is cited that would increase the number of alternative routes to certification programs offered in the state of New Jersey that often serve low income, children of color, children who are poor from all ethnic backgrounds, it’s just not accurate,” said Wanda Blanchett, Dean of Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
“I strongly urge you to take a cautious and prudent approach to any newly proposed regulations,” said Kenneth Kunz of the NJACTE.
The teacher prep proposals are a long way from becoming policy, starting in 2017. Over the next couple of months the department will digest the feedback and then fine-tune its plan.