“It was me, my parents and my grandmother all under one roof and I student-taught from my dining room in Paterson,” said Torres, laughing.
“I scooted the table into a corner … that was my little area of the house because the Wi-Fi router wouldn’t reach my bedroom. It was also the plainest backdrop I could find, and I didn’t even think to get a divider until I was almost done,” said the 23-year-old aspiring teacher completing her degree at The College of New Jersey in Ewing.
Torres was among 171 student teachers TCNJ placed in local schools earlier this year, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, made worse by the Delta variant.
To become a certified teacher in New Jersey, college students must have a bachelor’s degree, complete a teacher preparation program, pass required exams and complete a minimum of 12 weeks as a student teacher.
Due to the pandemic, those teaching hours could only be fulfilled for many student teachers in a virtual format during the last academic year. According to school officials and experts, dealing with COVID-19 anxieties in the classroom has been one of the factors contributing to New Jersey’s teacher shortage — a problem which predates the health crisis.
But school officials at some of the state’s largest teacher-training colleges said the shift to online education also provided plenty of positive opportunities, as well.
LOOKING AT TRENDS
Fewer people are studying to become teachers in New Jersey, according to a 2020 report released by the New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonpartisan think tank based in Trenton.
The report showed that students who completed programs to become educators fell by 47% between 2010 and 2018. Enrollment in teaching programs dropped 63% over that same period.
According to the report, the Garden State saw 21,410 teacher candidates enrolled in various prep programs in the 2009-10 academic year — the most ever. In 2017-18, that number dipped to 7,590.
The figures mirror what’s happening throughout the country, with an analysis of National Center for Education statistics indicating that education majors made up about 10.1% of bachelor’s degree candidates in 1990-91. By 2018-19, that figure fell to 4.2%.
The drop in students studying to become educators has been felt in the classroom. Reported teacher shortages for the 2021-22 school year in New Jersey include science, math, special education, world languages, career and technical education and English as a Second Language, according to a U.S. Department of Education database.
Mark Weber, an analyst for education policy at the New Jersey Policy Perspective, said the organization is waiting on new federal data expected in October to track how COVID-19 has impacted the teacher pool in the state.
“The issues really came before the pandemic though, and it has to do with the pay gap between teachers and other college-educated workers, the eroding benefits and the lack of respect,” said Weber, noting that anecdotally, coronavirus health concerns have lowered teacher morale.
“It’s very reasonable to expect that we’re going to see this trend continue, even through COVID,” Weber said.
On average, a public-school teacher in the U.S. makes $61,000 annually, according to the National Education Association.
The median teacher’s salary in New Jersey was $70,815 in 2019-2020, according to data collected by the state.
Nora Hyland, the associate dean and faculty director of teacher education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, said other factors have contributed to the decline in educators such as health concerns related to COVID-19 and continuing “political controversy and debate around teachers.”
HUNDREDS OF PLACEMENTS
The number of student teachers placed by various New Jersey schools has fluctuated from 2019 to 2021.
Prior to the pandemic in the fall of 2019, Kean University placed 231 student teachers in local schools. That jumped to 322 (largely virtual) in the fall of 2020 and to 281 student teachers this fall.
In its full 2019-20 academic year, Rowan University placed 389 students. That increased to 476 for the 2020-21 academic year. And so far, Rowan has placed 287 students this fall.
TCNJ placed 352 students in 2020 and 347 in 2021, school officials said.
“Our numbers have remained fairly consistent over the past few years, despite the fact that overall there has been a sharp decline in the number of students pursuing education degrees,” said Eileen Heddy, director at the office of support for teacher education programs and global student teaching at TCNJ.
“During COVID, placing students has been more difficult in some ways, because teachers are already stretched so thin and feeling pulled in many different directions. Many do not feel they have the time and energy to properly mentor a student teacher,” Heddy said.
Conversely, Heddy said some full-time teachers have requested a student teacher because they’ve helped provide one-on-one instruction for students and assisted with technology needs.
Montclair State University experienced a similar trend. The school placed 340 student teachers in the fall of 2019, 316 students last fall and 338 students this fall across about 30 schools in North Jersey.
“They’re applying all the theory, skills and knowledge they learned by being in the real-life setting of a classroom. It’s a two-way street. They’re learning from the cooperating teacher, and from the students … and they’re providing a second set of eyes and ears,” said Caroline Murray, assistant director of clinical internships at the Montclair State University Center of Pedagogy.
For first-year teachers who completed their student teaching hours solely online and now must transition to the classroom for in-person teaching, the university has provided resources. That has helped draw new recruits and retain current students, they said.
Montclair also created a “Clinical Prep Week” for students who will be starting their in-person student teaching requirements this fall.
As they head into classrooms, helping student teachers learn the nuances of health protocols and social-emotional wellness will be vital, said Jennifer Robinson, executive director of Montclair State’s Center of Pedagogy.
“Our students by nature of going through a virtual ed program have a wealth of knowledge and experience around technology. That’s become a really important contribution to the classrooms they’ve been placed in too,” Robinson said.
Susan Kandell, managing assistant director of clinical practice and teacher placement at Kean University’s College of Education, said the school mandated student teachers participated in a “virtual service-learning project.”
“It provided set time blocks for parents to chat with the Kean student teachers for online instructional support in case the students and parents were struggling with content at home,” said Kandell.
Leslie Showell, a pre-K teacher at Riletta T. Cream Elementary School in Camden, had student teachers join her both virtually last year and starting last week in-person.
“I began as a paraprofessional at Cream in 1997 and for me it’s an honor to share my experiences with the incoming teachers. They need that hands-on experience,” Showell said.
Showell noted there are growing pains, regardless of the format.
For virtual learning, Showell emphasized communication with parents who in some cases couldn’t meet the teachers before the remote school year began due to COVID-19 restrictions. In-person, student teachers were educated on COVID-19 requirements and effective in-classroom practices, she said.
“You help guide them and students become independent over time,” Showell said of her pre-K students. “We have to come at it with an empathetic heart. They were maybe a year-and-a-half (old) when the pandemic hit. All they know right now is the dynamic of their family at home, so they have to get used to the routine.”
Virtual student teaching at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School in Trenton wasn’t smooth sailing, said Torres, the student teacher from The College of New Jersey.
Building meaningful connections was tough because students could turn off their cameras during class, she said. Connecting with her mentor teacher worked out, but that took time too. And the overall strain of teaching and learning in front of the same screen day after day could be tiring on the eyes and brain.
But Torres, who is currently completing her student teaching hours in person at Trenton Central High School, said she’s taken it in stride. She said she’s gotten help from her family along the way — understandably as her sister, aunt and cousin are all teachers too.
“I think that this has given me such a different perspective that so many seasoned teachers don’t have,” said Torres. “Moving forward as we try to be more in-person, I trust I will get the more normal, non-COVID, experiences I need for my development. But if the pandemic gets more aggressive in the future, I won’t be a fish out of water.”
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