New Jersey Department of Education

Office of Recruitment, Preparation and Recognition

The Office of Recruitment, Preparation, and Recognition (RPR) leads policy development to ensure that every student, school, and district will have access to well-trained, effective educators that meet the particular needs of their local communities. To do this, we must attract and retain excellent educators in New Jersey, ensure that they are prepared to be effective on their first day on the job, and recognize their contributions to our students and to the profession.

The RPR office focuses on the following areas:

  1. Developing regulations and guidance pertaining to the operation of educator preparation programs,
  2. Approving and monitoring all preparation programs that operate in New Jersey and are intended to lead to state certification, and
  3. Sharing data and information on approved preparation programs to help promote their continuous improvement.
  • Supporting recruitment efforts by working with institutions of higher learning, school districts and other educational entities to encourage a more robust and diverse pool of teachers for the state of New Jersey.
  • Collaborating with educator preparation programs in New Jersey to help support their efforts in creating a more robust and diverse teacher candidate pool and to ensure they are preparing candidates for teaching and leading in New Jersey public schools.
  • Driving educator preparation program advancement by annually sharing with our New Jersey educator preparation providers performance data on their certified candidates, supporting them in the accreditation process, and assisting them to better understand the data to drive meaningful improvement
  • Honoring and rewarding outstanding New Jersey educators through a variety of national and state programs for the quality of their teaching & professional leadership as well as utilizing our honored educator’s talent and expertise to help inform policy decisions at the local, county and state levels.

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