ST. PAUL, MN – Tonight the Minnesota House of Representatives is debating and expected to pass an Education Policy Omnibus bill (House File 2397).
State Representative Carlos Mariani (DFL – St. Paul), chair of the House Education Policy Committee, said the bill takes serious steps to expand opportunities for all students to succeed and make sure top-notch, effective teachers lead Minnesota’s classrooms.
“This bill is the result of a lot of hard work and collaboration between a diverse group of stakeholders from all backgrounds who share a commitment to providing Minnesota students with the best education possible,” said Mariani. “This Legislature made terrific progress last year in terms of bolstering student achievement and today we continued moving forward towards that goal. I’m very proud of the benefits this bill brings to each and every learner.”
Highlights of the bill include comprehensive changes to English language learner services, revamp of the career and technical education model, reform of teacher licensure core skills testing, addition of an adult standard high school diploma, Minnesota’s entrance into an interstate compact to help children of military families, and unsession repeals.
English Language Learners (ELL):
-Incorporates the Learning for English Academic Proficiency and Success Act (LEAPS Act), a bill authored by Rep. Mariani that revamps the English language learner education delivery system by taking steps such as emphasizing dual language proficiency, aiming for English academic proficiency in the main classroom setting, providing training for all teachers to know how to teach ELLs, and leveraging state accountability systems to track and improve ELL academic achievement.
Teachers:
-Allows teacher candidates to take the ACT or SAT as an alternative to the MTLE basic skills test and directs the Board of Teaching to determine a proficiency score (does not repeal the MTLE basic skills exam).
-States that non-native English speaker candidates seeking to teach direct instruct in their native language or world language instruction do not need to pass a basic skills test. It provides the ACT or SAT alternatives to out-of-state candidates and states that if a reciprocity agreement exists, they could transfer their out-of-state teaching certifications.
-Allows out-of-state teacher candidates to teach under a license or temporary license up to two grade levels off of what their out-of-state license allows. The current law is no more than one grade level less than a similar Minnesota license. Minnesota licenses teachers from grade 7 through 12. However, many other states do the licensing from grades 5 through 12, as opposes to grades 6 through 12, which would be ok under current law.
-Establishes a school year-long student teacher pilot program for the 2015-16 through 2018-19 school years. The pilot will provide teacher candidates with an intensified classroom learning experience so that newly licensed teachers will have best practices and research to immediately begin effective teaching to increase growth and achievement.
-Allows probationary teachers whose first three years of consecutive employment is interrupted for maternity, paternity or medical leave to resume teaching within 12 months of when the leave began and to not be penalized if they still complete a combined total of three years of teaching immediately before and after the leave.
-Incorporates some performance measures from the teacher development and evaluation system into the Q-comp system. The bill also would also make observation and interview notes of peer coaches under the teacher development and evaluation system releasable to school officials only with the consent of the subject teacher.
Educational Achievement and Access:
-Implements several recommendations of the Career Pathways and Technical Education Task Force and tasks the P-20 partnership with collaborating with stakeholders to recommend changes that will create a more effective education system comprehensively focused on students’ individual career and college readiness plans.
-Prohibits a postsecondary institution that enrolls a high school student in a postsecondary enrollment options program (PSEO) in a class from denying enrollment in that same class to an otherwise qualified postsecondary student who is a veteran and who demonstrates that the enrollment time line was not practicable for them.
-Implements the Standard Adult High School Diploma task force recommendations, which create a structured system leveraging adult competencies, skills, knowledge and experiences to deliver adult diplomas that are equivalent to standard high school diplomas.
-Allows a postsecondary institution to offer below college level remedial classes to students who are in the Graduation Incentives Program and enrolled full-time in a middle or early college program designed for dual credit. The student can receive developmental college credit, not college credit, for those remedial/developmental classes.
-Encourages districts to offer expanded opportunities for students to participate in experiential and applied learning, and strengthens alignment between career and college ready curriculum and state and local standards.
-Directs the Commissioner to consult with a range of experts to develop recommendations on how to improve achievement of underperforming students through a system of early intervention and instructional support in line with the statute on alternative instruction before referral to special education.
-Makes Minnesota a part of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The Compact provides a range of educational areas that Minnesota would agree to implement to assist transferring children of military families. Many of these provisions are written broadly to allow for local control and flexibility in implementation. Areas of transition covered are the handling of educational records from the sending district and receiving district; immunizations; kindergarten and 1st grade entrance age; course and educational program placement; special education services; placement flexibility when similar but not exact coursework has been completed; student request for absences due to deployment activities; extracurricular participation; course waivers and exit exams. Many of the rules for the mentioned areas provide guidance and encouragement for districts but do not require them to make accommodations that are not reasonable. As with other intestate compacts, Minnesota would be bound by the rules’ effects.
-Allows two or more districts to agree to create an innovative cooperative center to provide for technology and other educational services. A Minnesota state college or university could be part of the partnership as well.
-Requires districts to report written summaries of their students’ current and longitudinal performance and programs on standards and assessments. A district would comply with the proposed law with an MDE prepared summary.
Charter Schools:
-Clarifies the definition of a single purpose authorizer of charter schools so that a nonprofit limited liability corporation with members can be organized solely for the purpose of chartering a school. This would prevent the unintended consequence of eliminating a particular authorizer’s capacity to charter schools due to last year’s legislation.
-Requires the Commissioner to respond within 15 days to an authorizer’s responsive affidavit trying to fix an initial application to charter a school, slightly modifies the process of how a charter school can apply to an authorizer to expand its operations to have more grades than its original charter approved by the Commissioner, and expands the lowest age a charter can serve from five years to prekindergarten.
Unsession and Other Provisions:
-Carries the Department of Education’s unsession proposals, including:
Placing the motorcycle education program under the Department of Public Safety; deleting obsolete language on the Council on Early Childhood Education and Care; and repealing16 statutes or provisions that are either obsolete or permissive and unnecessary. The bill also carries the repeal of 7 outdated statutes on district level accountability that create needless personal liability for district clerks and treasurers.
-Clarifies the Commissioner’s ongoing rulemaking authority pertaining to the Desegregation rule as having to be consistent with the statutes on the achievement and integration program. This would force MDE’s rule on desegregation to conform to statute.