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Article 1
Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development
Section 1. School and Student Indicators of Growth and Achievement. Requires the Commissioner to report a student’s growth and progress towards grade-level proficiency as it relates to the appropriate state standard and the statewide assessments aligned with those standards.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective July 1, 2012, for growth data beginning in the 2012-2013 school year.
Section 2. Professional Development and Mentoring for Probationary Teachers. Requires a school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers in the district to develop a professional development model for probationary teachers that uses the district’s professional development resources to improve teaching and learning.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective for the 2013-2014 school year and later.
Section 3. Professional Development and Peer Coaching for Continuing Contract Teachers. Requires a school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers in the district to develop a professional development model for continuing contract teachers that uses the district’s professional development resources to improve teaching and learning.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective for the 2013-2014 school year and later.
Section 4. Professional Development and Mentoring for Probationary Teachers. Requires a school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers in the district to develop a professional development model for probationary teachers that uses the district’s professional development resources to improve teaching and learning.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective for the 2013-2014 school year and later.
Section 5. Professional Development and Peer Coaching for Continuing Contract Teachers. Requires a school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers in the district to develop a professional development model for continuing contract teachers that uses the district’s professional development resources to improve teaching and learning.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective for the 2013-2014 school year and later.
Section 6. Teacher Evaluations.
Subdivision 1. Evaluation Structure. Establishes a teacher evaluation structure to provide information about teacher effectiveness for teachers, districts, and charter schools to use in developing and improving teacher performance and student learning. The structure contains the following:
- A teacher appraisal framework that identifies performance measures for determining teacher effectiveness;
- A mechanism for translating the performance data into five-part teacher effectiveness rating scale;
- A four-tier status designation that identifies teachers as standards, advanced, distinguished, or exemplary based on a teacher’s effectiveness rating over time.
Subdivision 2. Teacher Appraisal Framework. Paragraph (a) requires a school district or charter school to establish a teacher appraisal framework that includes five performance ratings. The Department of Education must make available frameworks and other materials from evidence-based sources to assist districts and charters in developing n appraisal framework.
Paragraph (b). If statewide assessment results are available under Minnesota Statutes, section 120B.35, those results must be the basis for 50 percent of a teacher’s total appraisal.
Paragraph (c). If statewide assessment results are not available, 40 percent of the teacher’s appraisal must be based on the results of a district-wide assessment testing state and local standards and an additional ten percent consisting of results from teacher-developed assessments.
Paragraph (d). If district-wide assessment results are unavailable, then 50 percent of the teacher’s appraisal must be based on the results of teacher-developed and administrator-approved assessments of state and local standards. A school administrator must meet annually with teachers to review, modify if needed, and approve local course and grade level expectations for student achievement and growth
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Paragraph (e). A charter school or school board, in consultation with its teachers, must identify the performance measures for the other 50 percent of the teacher’s total appraisal. The appraisal must include two annual evaluations by a school administrator and data from parent surveys.
Subdivision 3. Teacher Performance Effectiveness Ratings. Paragraph (a). Starting in the 2012-2013 school year, a school district or charter school must annually use the following scale to determine a teacher’s effectiveness rating and corresponding status designation for each teacher teaching a subject for which statewide student academic achievement measures exist under section 120B.35:
- a teacher is "highly effective" if the teacher's students, on average, experienced one and a half or more years of growth and the teacher received a performance rating of "5";
- a teacher is “highly effective” if the teacher’s students, on average, experienced at least one year of growth and the teacher received a performance rating of “4”;
- a teacher is “average” if the teacher’s students, on average, experienced at least .9 years of growth and the teacher received a performance rating of “3”;
- a teacher is in “needs improvement” if the teacher’s students, on average, experienced between .5 and .9 years of growth or the teacher received a performance rating of “2” or lower; and
- a teacher is “ineffective” if the teacher’s students, on average, experienced less than one-half year of growth and the teacher received a performance rating of “1.”
Paragraph (b). Starting in the 2012-2013 school year, a school district or charter school must use the following teacher performance effectiveness scale and corresponding status designation for each teacher who teaches a subject for which no statewide assessment data exist:
- a teacher is “highly effective” if they received a performance rating of “5”;
- a teacher is “effective” if they received a performance rating of “4”;
- a teacher is “average” if they received a performance rating of “3”;
- a teacher is “needs improvement” if they received a performance rating of “2”;
- a teacher is “ineffective” if they received a performance rating of “1”.
Subdivision 4. Teacher Status Designations. Paragraph (a) Beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, a school district or charter school is required to establish a four-tier status designation for identifying teachers’ effectiveness, consistent with this section, using measures of teacher performance and student learning as they relate to meeting state and local education standards.
Paragraph (b). To receive a “standard” designation, a probationary teacher during the three-year probation period must receive at least one rating of “average,” “effective,” or “highly effective,” and meet applicable professional development requirements.
Paragraph (c). A licensed teacher who has a “standard” designation must receive a rating of “average,” “effective,” or “highly effective” in four years out of each five-year employment period and meet applicable professional development requirements to receive an “advanced” status designation.
Paragraph (d). A teacher who receives a “highly effective” rating in three years out of a five-year employment period and meets applicable professional development requirements receives a “distinguished” status designation.
Paragraph (e). A teacher who receives a “highly effective” rating in seven years during two consecutive five-year employment periods and meet applicable professional development requirements receives an “exemplary” status designation.
Paragraph (f). A teacher who receives a “distinguished” or “exemplary” status designation keeps that designation for the remainder of the five-year employment period in which the teacher received the designation.
Subdivision 5. Data Gathering and Analysis. Requires the Department to provide assistance to school districts and charter schools in collecting and aggregating student data in order to implement subdivisions 2, 3, and 4. Any data on individual students or teachers received, collected, or created that are used to generate summary data are nonpublic data under chapter 13.
Subdivision 6. Reports. Paragraph (a). Starting in the 2012-2013 school year, a school district or charter school is required to report to the Department the following each school year:
- each teacher’s performance effectiveness rating;
- each teacher’s performance rating under the framework;
- each teacher’s status designation;
- each teacher’s professional preparation program;
- its appraisal framework; and
- its graduation rate.
Paragraph (b). Starting in 2014, the Department must report to the legislature a report that analyzes and evaluates summary data generated under paragraph (a) to determine the effectiveness of teacher appraisal systems in improving teaching and learning.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective immediately.
Section 7. Staff Development Program. Updates the staff development program to ensure staff development activities are aligned with the district and school site staff development plans, based on student achievement data, focused on student learning goals, and used in the classroom setting. The date for a district to submit its staff development report to the Commissioner is changed from October 15 to October 1.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective for the 2013-2014 school year and later.
Section 8. Staff Development Revenue. Updates the language regarding the use of the revenue reserved for staff development. States the primary purpose of the reserved revenue is to create and implement district and school site staff development plans.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective for the 2013-2014 school year and later.
Section 9. School Administrator Development. Requires a school board and the school administrators to collaboratively develop a professional development model for the district’s school administrators. Requires the professional development model to:
- provide professional development to accurately and effectively evaluate teachers;
- provide professional development to better recommend appropriate professional development strategies for teachers;
- make appropriate recommendations for principals to attend development opportunities, such as the Principal’s Leadership Institute or other statewide development programs; and
- provide professional development opportunities targeted to identifying systemic strengths and weaknesses within a school.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective July 1, 2012.
Section 10. Appraisal Implementation Timeline. Sets the timeline for implementation of the teacher appraisal framework. The 2011-2012 school year must serve as an evaluation framework development and data collection year. The 2012-2013 school year must serve as a pilot year, and the 2013-2014 school year is the first year of full implementation of the teacher appraisal framework and data collection system.
Effective Date: Makes the section effective immediately.
Article 2
Teacher Employment
Section 1. School Performance Report Cards. Requires the Commissioner to report the number of teachers in each performance effectiveness ratings category on the school report card, by school site.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective July 1, 2014.
Section 2. Probationary Period. Paragraph (a) allows the school board to terminate a probationary teacher at will during the teacher’s first 60 school days of their first year of employment.
Paragraph (e). Requires a district’s decision to issue a contract to a classroom teacher at the end of the probationary period to be based on the following:
- the teacher’s professional growth plan;
- the teacher’s appraisal results and performance effectiveness rating; and
- other locally selected criteria aligned to instructional practices in teaching and learning.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 3. Termination of Contract After Probationary Period. Provides for a five-year term for continuing contracts.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 4. Teacher Employment. Paragraph (a). A school district is required to use the teacher appraisal framework to make informed decisions about teacher development and performance. A teacher is required to participate in ongoing professional development during the term of their employment.
Paragraph (b). After the completion of the three-year probationary period, the teacher may be reemployed with a contract for a renewable five-year term.
Paragraph (c). At the end of each five-year term, the district must either continue or terminate a teacher’s employment based on;
- a portfolio of the teacher’s five-year professional growth plan, conducted at least twice a year;
- the teacher’s appraisal results and performance effectiveness rating; and
- other locally selected criteria aligned to instructional practices in teaching and learning.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 5. Grounds for Termination. Allows a continuing contract teacher to be terminated by the district if the teacher is rated ineffective not recommended for continuing employment. A teacher contract must be terminated if they correct the specified deficiency items within 180 days after being given written notice to remedy the items.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 6. Negotiated Unrequested Leave of Absence. Strikes language that prohibited a plan negotiated by the school board and the exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers from including provisions that would result in the exercise of seniority by a teacher holding a provisional license.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 7. Unrequested Leave of Absence. Allows the superintendent to exempt teachers from the effects of the unrequested leave of absence order established in this subdivision if the teacher is able to provide instruction that a similarly licensed teacher cannot provide or whose subject area license meets unmet district needs for student instruction. Establishes the order the school board must use to place teachers on unrequested leave of absence that’s based on the teacher’s performance effectiveness ratings
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 8. Probationary Period; Discharge or Demotion. Paragraph (a). Strikes a provision that required the school board to consult with the peer review committee before deciding whether or not to renew a probationary teacher’s contract. Allows the school board to terminate a probationary teacher at will during the teacher’s first 60 school days of their first year of employment.
Paragraph (d). Requires a district’s decision to issue a contract to a teacher at the end of the probationary period to be based on the following:
- the teacher’s professional growth plan;
- the teacher’s appraisal results and performance effectiveness rating; and
- other locally selected criteria aligned to best instructional practices in teaching and learning.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 9. Teacher Employment. Paragraph (a). Requires a school district located in a city of the first class to use a teacher appraisal framework to make informed decisions about teacher development and performance. Requires teachers to participate in ongoing professional development throughout their employment term.
Paragraph (b). After the completion of the three-year probationary period, the teacher may be reemployed with a contract for a renewable five-year term.
Paragraph (d). At the end of each five-year period of service, the district must either continue or terminate a teacher’s service to the district. A district’s determination must be based on;
- a portfolio of the teacher’s five-year professional growth plan, conducted at least twice a year;
- the teacher’s appraisal results and performance effectiveness rating; and
- other locally selected criteria aligned to instructional practices of teaching and learning.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 10. Grounds for Discharge or Demotion. Allows a teacher to be discharged or demoted by the district if the teacher is ineffective and not recommended for employment. A teacher may be discharged for ineffectiveness if they fail to remedy the specified deficiency within 180 days after being given written notice of the items of complaint.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 11. Services Terminated by Discontinuance or Lack of Pupils: Preference Given. Allows a school board to discontinue teachers based on the teacher’s effectiveness performance rating. A superintendent is allowed to exempt from this subdivision a teacher who’s able to provide instruction that a similarly licensed teacher cannot provide or whose subject area license meets unmet district needs.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for the 2014-2015 school year and later.
Section 12. Teacher Effectiveness-Based Bonuses. Requires a school district to issue an annual ten percent bonus to a teacher with a “distinguished” rating. Requires a school district to issue an annual 20 percent bonus to a teacher with an “exemplary” rating.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective July 1, 2019.
Section 13. Duties. Prohibits a school board from entering a contract with a superintendent that limits the superintendent’s ability to assign and reassign teachers or administrators to schools to best meet student and school needs.
Section 14. Contract; Duties. Allows a superintendent to assign “highly effective,” “distinguished,” and “exemplary” teachers to schools to best meet student and school needs.
Section 15. Effect of Teacher Diversity on Student Achievement. Directs the Commissioner to contract for a study to measure the impact that a culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse teaching faculty has on educational outcomes of minority students. The study is required to control for teacher effectiveness. The Commissioner also must contract for a study evaluating school district practices for recruiting a culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse teaching faculty.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective for July 1, 2013 with the first study beginning after the 2013-2014 school year.
Section 16. Advisory Task Force on Implementing a Teacher Evaluation Structure. Requires the Commissioner to convene a nine-member advisory task force to make recommendation related to implementing the teacher evaluation structure. Task force members include representatives from the following organizations:
- Minnesota Chamber of Commerce;
- Minnesota Business Partnership;
- Minnesota Assessment Group;
- Minnesota Association of School Administrators;
- Minnesota Elementary and Secondary School Principals Association;
- Two representatives of Education Minnesota, with one being a currently licensed classroom teacher teaching in a first class city school; and
- Two parents of students enrolled in a Minnesota public school, one of whom must be a parent of color, appointed by the Minnesota Parent Teacher Organization.
The task force must recommend to the Commissioner any changes needed to fully implement the teacher evaluation structure. The Commissioner must report the task force’s recommendations to the legislature by February 15, 2012. The task force expires June 1, 2012.
Effective Date. Makes the section effective immediately. other locally selected criteria aligned to instructional practices in teaching and learning.
AMBY/syl
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