Improving teacher preparation is critical to long-term improvement in teacher quality. More than 200,000 new teachers enter classrooms each year. Increasing student enrollment, the retirement of baby boom generation teachers, and high attrition in their first five years (between 40 and 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession) have…

This paper presents the New Jersey edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's 2008 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook". The 2008 "Yearbook" focuses on how state policies impact the retention of effective new teachers. This policy evaluation is broken down into three areas that encompass 15 goals. Broadly, these goals…

Recent reforms (such as New Jersey's alternative certification requirements) aimed at attracting higher quality teacher candidates, combined with a predicted teacher shortage and changes in professional attitudes and values, are providing increased opportunities for all kinds of teachers. Suddenly, private schools are valuing candidates with…

In 1983, New Jersey's governor, Tom Keane, proposed the Alternative Path to Certification as a means to alleviate the state's growing teacher shortage. At least 12 other states are now using similar plans to recruit teachers possessing liberal arts bachelor's degrees who have passed a standardized test and completed successfully a one-year…

This New Jersey edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the third annual look at state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers can make changes that will have a positive impact on…