Education Minnesota's 2011 legislative priorities

Education funding
Early childhood through 12th-grade education

Keep funding at least at the level required under current law.
Provide funding to reduce class sizes, improve teacher training and evaluation, and expand early childhood programs.
Make at least a “down payment” on repaying the school funding shift.
Permanently reform school funding to make it equitable, sustainable, predictable and sufficient.

Higher education

Provide a level of higher education investment that allows access to higher education for all Minnesotans.
Increase base funding each year of the biennium to compensate for inflation.

Closing the achievement gap

Invest in early learning from birth through kindergarten, including all-day, every-day kindergarten for all students; coordination of early childhood programs in the Minnesota Department of Education; and expanded early childhood screening to include educational factors.
Require school district plans to enhance parent and community involvement, including home visits, parent education, co-location of services in school buildings, flexible schedules to meet families’ needs, and coordination with community groups.
Provide teachers with training, planning time and other support, including time to work together to improve instruction, training in family outreach, equitable student discipline, stronger anti-bullying policies, reduced class size and maintenance of minimum staffing in support areas.

Stronger teacher development and evaluation

Require evaluators to be trained.
Include mentoring and induction in the evaluation process.
Require annual evaluations and peer review as part of a three-year cycle that includes individual growth plans, professional learning communities and at least one formal evaluation by a school administrator.
Include multiple measures of student learning as evaluation components.
Require teachers who do not meet professional teaching standards to go through an improvement process, and to be referred to administration for appropriate action if they still do not improve.

Alternative pathways to teaching

Create a school-based transitional licensure program to prepare candidates with college degrees to teach in shortage areas or where school districts seek to address issues surrounding diversity.
Require school-based programs to partner with a college or university.
Require candidates to have a degree related to the area in which they will teach and pass required content tests, reading, writing and math exams, and “how to teach” (pedagogy) tests.
Require candidates to complete at least a 200-hour intensive training program and to be directly supervised by a licensed teacher their first 90 days in the classroom.
Issue a one-year transitional license to program participants, renewable for one more year.

For more information, contact:
Jan Alswager, chief lobbyist, 651-292-4890
Jodee Buhr, lobbyist, 651-292-4830

January 25, 2011