- The wisdom of Harry Belafonte
- Intervention coaches who help prevent dropouts
- Effective early literacy instruction for African-American students
- The strong relationship between content knowledge and reading
- Which is a better way to learn to write, handwriting or digital?
- The K-4 learning trajectories of students with disabilities
- Making math, physics, and chemistry vivid for high-school students
- Getting into problem-solving mode before problems occur
- Captivating science books for children
- Curriculum resources from Arab cultures
- Holocaust and Genocide studies Requires education on the Holocaust, genocide of Indigenous Peoples and other genocides. Substantial curricular requirements accompany the requirement. (House only.)
- Credit for Employment with Health Care Providers Students employed in long-term care or licensed assisted living facility (ad other programs) can earn up to 2 elective credits per year toward graduation. (Senate only.)
- Prone Restraint Employees and specifically school resource officers or police offices contracted by a school district cannot use prone restraint. (Both bills.)
- Violent Students Removal from Class A violent student removed from class may only return to the classroom after the principal has consulted with the teacher on ways to improve student behavior and “enforce expectation of student conduct”. (House only—this was a floor amendment that may not survive conference.)
- Active Shooter Drills New protocols for active shooter drills include whether the drill is developmentally and age appropriate, culturally aware; trauma informed and inclusive of mobility restrictions, sensory needs, developmental physical disabilities, mental health needs and auditory or visual limitations. (Senate only.)
- Surprising ways to engage students and improve learning
- Students generate intentional math mistakes and then fix them
- What it takes to successfully implement reform mathematics
- Different approaches to admission criteria for selective high schools
- A study of high-school principals handling student protests
- Five ways to have lively debates and still arrive at consensus
- Maximizing student reading in the remaining weeks of the school year
- What makes a good conversation - and what doesn't
- Award-winning children's nonfiction and poetry
- An interactive graphic of what's happening at different altitudes
- Adam Grant on not letting e-mail stress us out
- What trauma-informed teaching looks like
- Does Holocaust education counteract antisemitism?
- Getting students to take the lead in class discussions
- High-school students use metaphors to think about mathematics
- Understanding, appreciating, and supporting low-wage workers
- Award-winning children's novels
- A video scale model of our solar system
- Menstrual Products Both bills require schools to make menstrual products available to Students in grades 4 through 12 Effective January 1, 2024.
- Ethnic Studies The House bill adds ethnic studies to the list of subjects in the social studies academic standard. The House bill also requires boards to assess ethnic studies curriculum needs to determine priorities for integrating ethnic studies into existing courses or developing new courses as part of the Worlds Best Workforce requirements.
- Testing Calendars Districts must publish calendar of standardized tests at least one week prior to the assessments but no later than October 1. Prior rule was September 1.
- Malicious and Sadistic Conduct Both bills require school districts to adopt an additional bullying policy prohibiting malicious and sadistic conduct. This must be included in student handbooks and policies.
- Suicide Prevention on ID Cards The Senate bill requires suicide contact information on student ID cards and in student handbooks and planners.
- Building middle schoolers' interpersonal skills
- How can we get more boys interested in the HEAL professions?
- Making sure math skills hold their own in STEM projects
- Getting students thinking more deeply about technologies
- The impact of a knowledge-focused K-8 curriculum
- A quest-based approach to teaching library skills - and more
- Award-winning children's picture books
- A speeded-up trip through the Panama Canal
- A graphic history of the Suez Canal
- Making relationship-building, asset-focused home visits
- Information literacy: what sources can teachers and students trust?
- Helping students engage in civil discourse
- Research insights on teaching critical thinking
- Teachers' ideas for improving classroom discussions
- Getting students to write at a deeper level
- A high-school student speaks up for young adult literature
- More applications for ChatGPT and other large language models
- Children's books that bring humor to a serious time
In This Issue:
The House and Senate are completely booked with conference committee meetings today. When the House and Senate pass bills, they rarely matched. A special joint committee of House and Senate members are appointed to work out the differences. When the conferees come to an agreement, a report is sent back to the floors of the House and Senate.
The key here is that a conference committee report cannot be amended. Upon return, the choices are yes, no, or send back to conference. Large bills with funding are guaranteed passage upon return because the money is essential to operation of schools. As a result, significant power rests in the conference committee with much of the work done behind closed doors.
Here is a link to all conference committee information:
https://www.leg.mn.gov/leg/cc/
The omnibus education finance link includes the side by side comparisons of the House and Senate bills (among other items).
MESPA and MASSP have coordinated testimony with other school management groups in support of the reduction of the retirement age to 64. An informational meeting will take place tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM in the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement. The hearing will be available online, check the schedule at https://www.leg.mn.gov/cal?type=single&mtgid=c_1780&d1=05/04/2023
And another five items in the K12 Omnibus and other bills:
Education conference committee is scheduled for 2:30 today.
There is much more to come
In This Issue:
In This Issue:
It was a busy night in the House last night. A joint convention of the House and Senate met to select Regents for the University of Minnesota. When that was finished the House came back into regular session and took up several bills including the Labor bill.
The omnibus labor bill adds class size, testing and staff ratios to bargaining. The House majority fought back multiple republican amendments, all failing on the same 61-69 vote. The final vote on the bill was 69 Democrats for, 61 Republicans against. Again, Ben Bakeberg gave a spirited speech in support of one of the amendments.
The Education Omnibus committee started up again this morning. After an hour long discussion on the inflation provisions of the House bill, the long trudging walk through of all the provisions continued.
Another Five Items in the bills:
Pension Update
And of course, all issues are alive as long as the legislators are at the Capitol. Bills were introduced Friday and today in an attempt to jump start the pension discussion. HF3294 and SF3314 would lower the retirement age to 64 for Tier 2 TRA members. The cost is approximately $67 million for school districts. The proposal is that the employer cost be paid by the state. The employee contribution would be raised from the current 7.75% to 8.25%. The employer contribution would be 9.85%. An informational hearing is scheduled for Thursday morning. This is a good start, the question is finding the $67 million to get employer support. This is genuine movement.
Today begins the legislative countdown to final agreements. In three busy weeks, the session will be over. In the meanwhile, the work will be fast and furious. With single party control, Democrat agendas will be passing at record pace. Republicans, out of the decision making for the first time in 8 years will have much to talk about when session is over. At the moment, it is the democrats show.
Major policy and finance bills are in line to be passed by the House and Senate in the coming weeks. The pace of legislative change will catch many Minnesotans by surprise. The public will learn of new law in the upcoming months as legislative news tends to travel slowly. The big issues have significant media coverage. The overwhelming number of changes will not be realized and understood for some time.
Eight conference committees are meeting starting today. Education is completing the mandatory walkthrough of the hundreds of provisions in the bill.. Of key interest to principals are the funding increases together with the discipline provisions. The Senate and House approach funding in the same fashion with one exception. The House proposes future increases based on inflation while the Senate puts those dollars into current funding and programs. The funding of inflation is the key difference that will be resolved in the next weeks.
School discipline continues to be discussed behind the scenes. MASSP and MESPA have engaged in several conversations with the Department, Legal Aid, and Education Minnesota. It is getting close to the end here, so keep your fingers crossed on discipline.
Education Minnesota has pushed hard to add several items to bargaining. Their proposal is to make class size, staffing ratios and student testing subjects of collective bargaining. Last week an amendment on the Senate floor took these provisions out of Omnibus Labor Bill. The proposals have generated significant interest in “Meet and Confer” as an alternative to putting these topics in bargaining. In all l likelihood the provisions will remain in the House bill. In the end, the issue will be decided in conference committee and on the Senate floor.
And of course, all issues are alive as long as the legislators are at the Capitol. Bills were introduced Friday and today in an attempt to jump start the pension discussion. HF3294 and SF3314 would lower the retirement age to 64 for Tier 2 TRA members. The cost is approximately $67 million for school districts. The proposal is that the employer cost be paid by the state. The employee contribution would be raised from the current 7.75% to 8.25%. The employer contribution would be 9.85%. An informational hearing is scheduled for Thursday morning. This is a good start, the question is finding the $67 million to get employer support. This is genuine movement.
Probably the most significant concern has been the extension of unemployment compensation to school hourly workers. The legislation requires school districts to pay the unemployment out of the general fund, an estimated cost of $135 million annually. This new cost significantly reduces the actual new dollars in the proposed formula increases. School districts would not be allowed to levy for these costs. Several districts have indicated that adoption of this proposal would significantly disrupt summer school and limit overall wage increases. The debate has been hot with some name calling during the past week.
The scope of the Omnibus Education bills is overwhelming. In the interest of breaking down the changes, I am going to provide 5 highlights of interest during the week. For starters, here are the first 5.
Personal Finance: Students in 9th grade next year will have to complete a course for credit on personal finance during their senior year of high school.
Ethnic Studies: The Commissioner must embed ethnic studies as related to academic standards review and revision. The legislation adds definitions of ethnic studies.
Recess: Schools may only limit recess when the student is likely to cause serious physical harm to other students or staff, or the parent consents.
Suspension: Students in grades K-3 may not be suspended for any reason in the House bill. The Senate authorizes k-3 suspensions where the student creates an immediate and substantial danger to themselves or to surrounding persons or property.
Civics: Civics will be required in either grade 11 or 12.
I will continue to provide lists of 5 as the week goes on.
The legalization of cannabis was passed on the Senate floor last week along party lines 34-33. The debate was serious and the concerns significant. Some of the comments though made a significant impact on social media. One senator commented that “two ounces were equivalent to three joints” – you can imagine the social media fun with that calculation. Pictures of some very large joints appeared on twitter.
While the House and Senate will make much of the public hearings, in truth, the majority of the work is done behind closed doors. We will continue to provide updates regularly through the end of session.
In This Issue:
In This Issue:
by Jim Knight
Click here for summary.
The Education bills have passed both the House and Senate floors. The final passage in the House along party lines. Two republicans crossed over on the Senate policy bill and one on the finance portion. (The Senate bill was split into policy and finance on the Senate floor.) Conference committee members will be appointed shortly and the conference committee will begin working on the two bills. The appointments will happen today or tomorrow and work will begin as early as Thursday.
Principals did not fare well in the House or Senate floors. Representative Ben Bakeberg stood up for principals during the debate. He argued for a reasoned approach to school behavior. He offered an amendment to strike out the provisions on nonexclusionary and other mandated discipline from the bill. The amendment was defeated on party lines.
Various advocate groups and the Department of Education are the movers behind the student discipline provisions. This session we have met with legislators, met with the commissioner, testified in hearings, submitted compromise positions, and sent letters to the committee, and sent out statewide legislative alerts. Principals have made hundreds of contacts with legislators. None of this has moved the needle.
In the Senate, Senator Eric Pratt gave an excellent summary of the bill. Senator Pratt chaired the committee 5 years ago when a compromise was worked on student behavior that involved all parties (some begrudgingly) coming to an agreement. He noted that this year, under one party governance, that didn’t happen.
The K 12 conference committee has some discretion and could change some of the nonexclusionary discipline language. That outcome however, becomes more difficult in the next two weeks.
Both the House and Senate bills have large increases in funding and have been generally praised by all groups. Unfortunately, as the provisions undergo more analysis, it appears that significant costs included in the bills will result in net increases being significantly less. In the Senate Finance Committee it was acknowledged that the foundation aid increases would be reduced (currently 4% and 5% ) to 2% and 3% after the deduction for the new unemployment compensation to be paid to hourly workers in the summer.
In addition, school groups are sending out Legislative Action Alerts on the requirements that school districts negotiate class size, staff ratios and student testing. This is a deeply troubling issue for school management.
In the meanwhile, scores of mandates will be enacted by the time we complete the conference committee process. (I saw one listing of the new mandates in the two bills that is 12 pages long.) New mandates will cover everything from reports to recess to readmission plans. This is just to name a few.
As always, we will plow through this wave of mandates and do our best to make sense of it all when the dust settles. In the meanwhile, discussion continues on compromise on some of the major issues. We will let you know how it goes.
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