By Francine Pfeffer
The Praxis is a poor tool to predict vocational educator success, wrote Brian Ward in the June 2021 edition of the NJEA Review. Ward is an automotive/diesel technology instructor at Sussex County Technical School in Sparta and is president of his local association. In January of this year, legislation creating alternatives to the Praxis for vocational educators was signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy.
Teachers must have a college degree unless they are teaching in a career and technical education program. For these programs, as Ward pointed out in his article, the best teachers are the ones with experience in the field. Individuals who wish to teach in a vocational/career and technical education (CTE) program can qualify to enter the alternate route teaching program through their work experience and a professional license or certification, as applicable. Many vocational instructors spend years in their chosen fields before they decide to teach.
Several years ago, the New Jersey Department of Education began requiring individuals pursuing a CTE certificate to pass the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators before they would qualify to receive their standard certificate. Members of the NJEA Vocational, Career, and Technical Education Committee were concerned that across the state, vocational districts were hiring promising teachers, masters of their trades, who worked under a provisional certificate and could not receive a standard certificate. In spite of multiple tries and hours with tutors, some individuals could not pass this Praxis test.
In 2019, the Vocational, Career, and Technical Education committee met with the Certification, Evaluation and Tenure committee to discuss the problem, and the committees issued a joint report to the NJEA Delegate Assembly (D.A.) calling for multiple options to assess basic skills for vocational educators. In May 2019, the D.A. adopted the policy recommendation.
As the 2019-20 school year began, NJEA and the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools (NJCCVTS) began talking to the New Jersey Department of Education to seek this change through regulation. When COVID-19 hit New Jersey, the effort stalled.
As the 2021 session of the legislature neared its end this fall, the legislature took action and passed S-4074, which was sponsored in the Senate by Teresa Ruiz and James Beach and in the Assembly by Anthony Verrelli, Pamela Lampitt and Linda Carter. Instead of taking the Praxis test, the bill allows alternate route CTE teacher candidates to demonstrate basic skills proficiency through an alternate measure approved by the Department of Education. Murphy signed it into law on Jan. 18.
This bill is a win for vocational schools and students. Vocational instructors will now have multiple ways to demonstrate their proficiency in basic skills. Schools will be able to keep their best instructors, and students are the winners as they learn their trade from teachers with years of experience in the field.
The Department of Education still has to promulgate regulations to implement this law, which goes into effect in the next school year. In the meantime, NJEA and the NJCCVTS are seeking relief for any CTE instructors whose provisional certificates expire at the end of this school year.
If you are a CTE instructor whose provisional certificate expires at the end of this school year and you have questions about your status, contact your local association president.
Francine Pfeffer is an associate director in the NJEA Government Relations Division and is the staff contact for the NJEA Vocational, Career and Technical Education Committee. Wheeler can be reached at ewheeler@njea.org. Pfeffer can be reached at fpfeffer@njea.org.