New Jersey teachers are no longer required to pass basic skills proficiency tests to teach in classrooms under a new law that took effect on Wednesday, Jan. 1. 2025.
In June 2024, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Assembly Bill 1669, which eliminated the requirement that individuals seeking a teacher certification would have to pass a basic skills test. As NorthJersey.com reports, the state has struggled with hiring new teachers and retaining existing educators amid an ongoing drop in students seeking teaching degrees, exacerbated by teacher vacancies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2023 report by a state task force.
Lawmakers say such tests are “redundant, expensive, and over-burdensome,” and eliminating them would help ease the state’s teacher shortage.
The law states as follows: “The State Board of Education shall not require a candidate seeking any instructional certificate, except in the case of a limited certificate of eligibility or a limited certificate of eligibility with advanced standing established pursuant to P.L. 2021, c. 224 (C.18A:26-2b et seq.), to complete a Commissioner of Education-approved test of basic reading, writing and mathematics skills including, but not limited to, the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test, in order to obtain an instructional certificate.”
“We need more teachers. This is the best way to get them,” said state Sen. Jim Beach (D-Camden), a sponsor of the bill that got approved in the Senate by a 34-2 vote.
The new law got support from the New Jersey Education Association, which called the previously required tests “an unnecessary barrier to entering the profession.”
To become certified in New Jersey, candidates must obtain a college degree in an accredited teacher preparation program, complete months of teaching experience inside a school setting and pass Praxis II core subject tests specific to their degree.