Do NJ Teachers Need This Test? Some NJ Educators Say It's Costly, Unnecessary

NEW JERSEY — A test required of new teachers is unnecessary, has a negative effect on Black and Hispanic teacher candidates, and is hampering New Jersey’s teacher workforce, some educators say.

Nine organizations, including NJ’s largest teacher union, are calling for the state to drop the educative Teacher Performance Assessment, or edTPA. The teachers, supervisors, administrators, and future teachers say the assessment is costly and redundant, and can be a barrier to new faces entering a workforce beleaguered by COVID-19.

This is a performance-based test all new public school teachers must pass in the state of New Jersey. The Senate Education Committee voted Monday to advance a bill, S896, that would prohibit the state from requiring student teachers to complete the assessment. Senators Shirley K. Green (D-15) and Linda R. Greenstein (D-14) introduced the bill, and the committee voted unanimously to approve it.

Specifically, the Senate bill says the Board of Education:

shall not require a candidate for a certificate of eligibility with advanced standing or a certificate of eligibility to complete a Commissioner of Education approved performance-based assessment, including, but not limited to, the edTPA, as a condition of eligibility for a certificate of eligibility with advanced standing or a certificate of eligibility. An educator preparation program shall require candidates to complete a performance-based assessment approved by the educator preparation program. The performance-based assessment approved by the educator preparation program shall meet requirements set by the Commissioner of Education.

If passed, the bill would take immediate effect. The companion bill, A677, has not been scheduled in an Assembly committee, per the New Jersey Monitor.

The organizations, led by the New Jersey Education Association, asked legislators and the state board of education to support the measure. Public school teachers in New Jersey need a bachelor’s degree, and must complete a teacher preparation program, at least 12 weeks as a student teacher, and pass the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test.

“Ending edTPA is a necessary next step to recruiting qualified educators and expanding and diversifying the teaching workforce,” the statement said.

Faculty and staff at Stanford University developed edTPA, which is designed to rank prospective teachers’ readiness for the classroom. It is administered by Pearson.

According to the official edTPA website, the assessment will “emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day 1 in the classroom” and is subject-specific. Aspiring teachers must gather lesson plans, video recordings of themselves at work, and other evidence while student-teaching as part of a portfolio.

Several states have banned the test or don’t require it. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, eight states require edTPA and it is an option in another 10.

Two researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said they found evidence edTPA “has adverse effects on student learning” in a working paper. The researchers, Bobby W. Chung and Jian Zou, found edTPA “reduced the number of teacher graduates and disproportionately hurt minority candidates in less selective programs.

“Our results are alarming to the existing shortage and diversity issue in the US public schools,” Chung and Zou wrote.

A state board in Texas recently voted to move forward with adding edTPA as a requirement, as teacher groups push back.

The groups behind the New Jersey bill are: New Jersey Education Association, Preservice New Jersey Education Association, New Jersey Policy Perspective, Education Law Center, Save Our Schools NJ, New Jersey Principals And Supervisors Association, New Jersey Association of of School Administrators, New Jersey Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/New Jersey Bilingual Education, New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools, and New Jersey School Boards Association.