Article

Thursday, July 19, 2007 • BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger Staff

The state Board of Education yesterday discussed ways to broaden the standards used to hire prospective teachers, including putting less emphasis on their college grade-point average.

The move, pressed by the board's new president, could lead to the reversal of the 7-year-old reform that raised the minimum grade-point average for prospective hires to 2.75, effectively a B-minus, from 2.5, a C-plus.

The idea behind the current policy, which was initiated by former Gov. Christie Whitman and expires in 2008, was to get brighter teachers into the classroom. But critics have argued that a uniform standard didn't take into account the degree of difficulty at different institutions, nor did it consider the "average" college student who blossomed later in life.

"What's the difference between a 2.74 and a 2.75?" asked newly elected board president Ronald Butcher, who has served more than 16 years on the panel. "Or a 2.75 at Marygrove College or University of Phoenix and a 2.4 at Princeton? I'd rather have the 2.4 at Princeton."

On the other hand, some board members questioned whether the state should send a message that C students at any college are good enough to be New Jersey teachers, especially after raising the threshold seven years ago.

"I don't want to lower the benchmarks of who is coming into the state to teach," said board member Kathleen Dietz.

Barbara Reiff, a parent of three children who attended public schools in the West Windsor-Plainsboro district, has served as vice president and co-president of the high school PTA. But as much as she advocated for excellent public schools, Reiff said she understood the downside of hard-and-fast rules.

A teacher's college transcript should be a factor in the hiring process, she agreed, but she immediately expressed concerns about how to do that fairly when college standards vary so much.

"Should it be a standard for certification? In a perfect world, sure," she said. "But there is a lot more to teaching than just doing well in your schoolwork."

It's a debate taking place nationwide. At least two dozen states have GPA requirements for their teachers, from Mississippi's 2.0 to New York's and Connecticut's 3.0, roughly a straight B.

But in a field rife with scholarship, state officials yesterday presented a summary of 34 studies nationwide that failed to reach consensus on whether good college transcripts lead to good classroom teaching.

Board members said they are willing to spend months, if not longer, trying to find out for themselves, with experts and college deans likely on the way to testify. The only apparent deadline is the expiration of the current rules in 2008, when the board could consider a host of new requirements for teachers.

"Let's have the discussion," said Butcher, the new president. "This might take us a year."

Butcher, who was on the board when the rule was changed in 2000, raised questions early on and yesterday said it gave a "false sense that we were raising standards."

As an administrator at Rowan University, he said he has come across several examples of the GPA requirement keeping out otherwise qualified candidates.

"I know a number of potential teachers who didn't pursue teaching as a career ... and if you look at the reason why, it was irrelevant to the issue of teaching itself," he said after the meeting.

Other board members agreed that there are numerous ways to measure quality teaching candidates. The state demands the GPA requirement along with a major in the subject one teaches and minimum scores on national teacher exams. Changes in 2002 introduced some flexibility, allowing a higher GPA in graduate school to take the place of a lower GPA earned earlier.

"Should we move the GPA, we need to do it in context of other things," said member Arnold Hyndman, dean of Livingston College at Rutgers University. "Nobody is looking to lowering standards, but we do want to look at what gets the best teachers in the classroom."

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy and her top staff did not hide their reluctance to tinker with the rule, saying they hope only to boost the standards further with a coming proposal for raising the scores required of candidates on the national exams, known as Praxis Series tests.

Butcher conceded there are many things to consider in the months ahead, not the least of which is the message that a C student is good enough to be a teacher.

"That is politically problematic," he said. "The question, though, is where is that dividing line?"

N.J. school board grapples with how to choose teachers

Return to Articles page