The Heldrich Center is pleased to release “New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce Landscape: 2024 Annual Report,” the first in a series of annual reports examining the teacher workforce in New Jersey. This report uses data from the New Jersey Statewide Data System (NJSDS) to provide analyses of the state’s teacher workforce to understand teacher retention by demographic subgroups. The report also examines the pipeline of available teachers who could potentially fill vacant positions in schools throughout the state. Finally, the report provides an overview of the educator workforce in New Jersey and introduces a case study analysis that traces the outcomes of 2013–14 to 2015–16 cohorts of some of the state’s educator preparation programs using available NJSDS data to deepen understanding of what has been occurring in the state’s teacher pipeline.
Some key findings from these analyses include:
- The overall number of teachers in New Jersey remained stable over the past 11 years.
- Increases in teachers occurred in English Language Learning, elementary and middle schools, and computer science.
- Large declines of teachers occurred in critical fields like world languages, mathematics, and science.
- While the proportion of Hispanic teachers increased between 2013–14 and 2022–23, the proportion of Black teachers declined during the same period.
- The median age of teachers remains relatively constant at 47 during this period, although the proportion of teachers aged 39 or younger has decreased.
- There is a recent downward trend in the rate of the replacement of teachers.
The authors of the report were Heldrich Center staff members Daniel Douglas, Ph.D., Researcher; Ann Obadan, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow; Marjory Palius, Ed.D., Research Project Manager; and Stephanie Walsh, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Research and Director of NJSDS.