As evidence, Minnesota's House Education Finance Committee will conduct a marathon 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight walk through of the 2011 Omnibus Education bill (HF934) on Monday, March 21st. Public testimony will be taken early in the day, and expert observers believe Omnibus Bills from both the House and Senate could be completed this week-- which would be record speed for the Legislature.
According to the educationally-earnest folks at Parents United for Public Schools, other bills to watch this session include these, some of which may find their way into the Omnibus bill. Each set of companion bills is followed by a few sentences on what I gleaned from the Revisor-provided draft of the House version. (Please don't blame me for trying :)
HF1187 Greiling (DFL-Roseville) | SF902 Stumpf (DFL-Thief River Falls) Governor’s Education Finance Bill
Deals variously with all-day kindergarten revenue (still optional for districts) , a new Governor's award for educational excellence, achievement gap innovation fund, lease aid for charter schools, and state levy accounting, among other matters.
HF273 (Woodard-R-Belle Plaine) | SF388 Nienow (R-Cambridge) Students at low-performing schools enrollment options established
Allows students of families at 175% of poverty or lower whose school does not meet certain performance criteria to enroll at nonpublic schools, and carry per pupil and transportation funding with them. Effectively Minnesota's "school voucher" bill (Would take effect for the 2011-12 school year).
HF945 (Petersen-R-Andover) | SF636 Olson (R-Minnetrista) Teacher licensure, evaluations, and tenure modified
Article I: Teacher Evaluation & Professional Development- a 10-section article concerning:
Select Sections:
1. Commissioner reporting of school & student growth based on highly reliable statewide or districtwide assessments. (Not mentioned, but possibly applicable, is the Common Core Assessments push being made at the national level.) (Would apply in 2012-13.)
2-5. Directs school boards to develop a professional development model, mentoring, & peer review for both probationary and continuing contract teachers for improving teaching & learning. (Applicable 2013-14.)
6. Proposes a teacher evaluation structure including:
A. teacher appraisal framework that identifies performance measures for determining teacher effectiveness
B. a mechanism for translating the performance data into a five-part teacher effectiveness rating scale
C. a four-tier status designation that identifies teachers as standard, advanced, distinguished, or exemplary based on a teacher's effectiveness rating over time.
(Section would be applicable the day following enactment.)
7. Requires school boards to establish staff development advisory committees & site professional development teams-- the majority of whom must be teachers representing various grade levels, subject areas, and special education. The advisory committee must also include nonteaching staff, parents, and administrators. (Section would take effect in 2013-14 school year.)
9. A school board and the school administrators in a district must collaboratively establish a professional development model for school administrators designed to:
provide professional development to effectively evaluate teachers and identify systemic strengths and weaknesses within a school, among other things. (Section effective 7/1/2012)
Article II: Teacher Employment
Select Sections:
1. Requires annual school performance report card that includes teacher effectiveness ratings established in Article I. (Would be effective July 1, 2014)
2. Annual contracts and evaluation plan for probationary teachers (under 3 yrs. service)
3-4. Concerns 5-year contracts awarded at end of probationary term & each successive 5 year period based on growth plans and teacher effectiveness system. (Effective 2014-15 and beyond.)
12. Teacher effectiveness based bonuses: Teachers with "distinguished" rating would receive annual bonus equal to 10% of base salary and those with "exemplary" rating could receive bonus equal to 20% of base salary. (Section w/b effective July 1, 2019.)
16. Establishes Advisory Task Force for implementing teacher evaluation structure. (Would be effective the day following enactment.)
HF947 (Erickson-R-Princeton) Alternative teacher pay system modified
Refines alternative teacher pay systems (like Q Comp) that reform the traditional "steps and lanes" salary schedules.
For those with existing plans, requires reapplication by June 1, 2013.
HF329 (Bills-R-Rosemount) | SF577 (Thompson-R-Lakeville) Public school employees prohibited from using public funds and resources to advocate to pass, elect, or defeat a political candidate, ballot question, or pending legislation.
No additional comments necessary.
HF638 (Myhra-R-Burnsville) School grading system created, school recognition program created, school report cards modified, rulemaking authorized, and report required.
Seeks to establish an "A to F" school and district grading system for identifying schools and districts where students are achieving low, medium, or high growth on statewide assessments.
Under this plan:
- 50% of a school's grade is based on disaggregated student data for those achieving proficiency in reading and mathematics the previous year
- 25% of the grade is based on whether students achieved low, medium or high growth on the previous year's reading and mathematics assessments
- 15% of the grade is based on students who did not achieve proficiency in the previous year's reading assessments
- 10% of the school's grade is based on students who did not achieve proficiency in the previous year's math assessments
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It is common for legislators to say they often hear more from constituents on stadium bills than on education matters. For those who think their input will be insignificant:
Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher (D) and Rep. Paul Kohls (R) reinforced the value of constituent-initiated communication during a Midday with Gary Eichten discussion last December:
"The most powerful thing that a legislator receives today is a handwritten note from anyone," explained Kelliher, who shared the distinction with Kohls of being an outgoing legislator who had recently run for Governor. "The personal story ... the invitation to come out and visit, those sorts of things, do change legislators minds, even if you disagree with that person," Kelliher added.
In "broad bipartisan agreement," Rep. Kohls said constituent input clearly impacted "how he thought about the issues" before stating: "It's a pretty rare event for legislators to get more than a handful of comments on any one particular issue .... If I got 10 emails on any particular subject, that was a lot of noise made by my constituents ... so I hope people know that."
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