Issue

What reforms need to be made to the K-12 education system to ensure that the current and future workforce in Minnesota is college and career ready, competitive in the world market and meets the needs of Minnesota businesses?

Policy

The business community supports reforms to the education system to improve student outcomes. The underlying issues of all reforms that must be implemented in Minnesota are based on the need to close the achievement gap. Having a more competitive education system that prepares all students for college and careers after high school will lead to a world-class workforce being produced in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce believes that there are key improvements to the K-12 system that will improve the state's global economic competitiveness and close the achievement gap. These include but are not limited to:

• Having a highly effective teacher in every classroom.

• Require all high school graduates to be college and/or career ready.

• Requiring students to read at grade level by the end of third grade.

• Academic standards that are benchmarked against international standards.

• Requiring principals and superintendents to be accountable and of high quality.

Effective teacher in every classroom: Making sure an effective teacher is in every classroom is the key factor to elevating academic performance to world standards for all students. Teachers play an important role in the lives of children, often leaving an impact that lasts a lifetime. Teachers are fundamental to guiding and training our future workforce. They are the heart of our education system and should be valued for their important work. Minnesota needs to ensure that our best people are leading our classrooms. It is for these reasons that the Minnesota Chamber wants to ensure that an effective teacher is in every classroom.

There are some fundamental ways to ensure that every classroom has an effective teacher, including but not limited to, having alternative pathways for licensure, teacher evaluations, create incentives for highly effective teachers to go into the most at-risk schools, hold teacher preparation programs accountable and define what an ineffective teacher, effective teacher, and highly-effective teacher is.

• Alternative pathways for licensure: Alternative pathways for teacher licensure offer new solutions for school districts and students struggling to close the achievement gap or being challenged in finding qualified candidates in specialty fields. All candidates who enter through alternative pathways must be carefully screened, selected and trained before they enter the classroom. However, the alternative program must not have a requirement of being linked to a higher education institution. In addition to programs such as Teach for America, there also must be streamlined opportunities for experienced professionals to attain teaching skills and accreditation. Alternative paths should hold applicants to the same standards on teaching accreditation tests, but provide a timelier route to meet training and qualification standards. Using teachers who are alternatively licensed should be available for all school districts to access if they are in need.

• Teacher accreditation: Teacher accreditation exams are one way to ensure that highly qualified people enter teaching and protect the integrity of the profession. As Minnesota moves away from using the Praxis tests and to a new licensure test, called the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations (MTLE), we must ensure that the required score results in having the most qualified teachers and is validated through use of teacher evaluations.

• Teacher evaluations: Evidence shows the importance of having an effective teacher in every classroom. Without a tool to evaluate effectiveness, this is difficult to do without bias. Therefore, it is important to evaluate teachers' performance using a standardized tool which is based at least 35 percent on student growth as well as classroom performance and preparedness. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) study identified key areas that Minnesota lacks including "fails to make evidence of student learning the preponderant criterion in teacher evaluations" and "lacks an efficient termination process for ineffective teachers." Finally, evaluations should identify teachers as ineffective, effective and highly effective.

• Professional development: Teacher evaluations also identify needed and necessary professional development. All professional development should include real-life workplace models in specific subjects as part of ongoing professional development. For example, a physics teacher should enlighten students about how an engineer applies physics in the workplace and the importance of engineers to the general public. Furthermore, the Minnesota Chamber supports mentorships among business leaders and school leaders.

• • Tenure: Performance must be a requirement of tenure. School districts are often unable to remove poor performing teachers due to tenure laws. Given the importance that effective teachers play in the education of children, schools should have the ability to terminate teachers who are not performing up to the district's or state's standards. Instead of using employment of three years to achieve tenure, teachers should be required to be considered "highly effective" to be tenured. School districts should be given the authority to use teacher evaluations when determining whom to layoff and whom to retain for future school years.
  
  This is also a way to reward high-performing teachers. Teachers deemed "highly effective" the previous year should be the last to be laid off, regardless of seniority. In similar fashion, teachers deemed "ineffective" the previous year should be the first to be laid off, regardless of seniority.

• • Teacher compensation: A system of teacher compensation that encourages the most highly sought after college graduates to choose the teaching profession should be implemented. In addition, there should be a phase-in increase for starting teachers' salaries and reduced impact of seniority, steps and lane schedules, and tenure on compensation.
  
  The use of teacher evaluations also should permit the expansion of performance-based teacher compensation, i.e. Q Comp, to reward teachers who demonstrate the greatest growth in student achievement toward meeting and exceeding state standards from one year to the next. Teacher benefits and salary increases should be based on student achievement; specifically progress toward meeting state standards. Measurements should consider individual, department and school results in a way that encourages the most successful teachers to share knowledge with fellow teachers.
  
  In addition, the Minnesota Chamber supports differential salaries for certain types of teachers – i.e. market-competitive pay for science teachers and the creation of monetary incentives for high-performing educators to teach in schools with the lowest performance and/or the highest numbers of at-risk students.

High school graduation requirements and college and career readiness: The quality of Minnesota's future depends on the ability for the school system to produce a highly educated and skilled workforce. While many students in Minnesota perform well on U.S. standardized tests and graduate on time, an increasingly unacceptable number of Minnesota students leave the K-12 system unprepared for higher education or the workforce. These shortcomings will have a negative impact on the state's workforce and, ultimately, our economy.

It is for these reasons that the Minnesota Chamber supports the requirement of high school graduates being able to demonstrate that they meet the minimum state graduation standards. The math Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma (GRAD) requirement – or an equivalent – should be reinstated and the reading GRAD requirement should be continued. In addition, a science and social studies GRAD requirement should be required.

If an end-of-course exam is similarly developed for required subjects, students should be required to meet a score that demonstrates the student has a basic understanding of the topic.

Literacy requirements: Children who are unable to read at grade level by the end of third grade have higher rates of school dropout, suppressing individual earning potential as well as general ability to live a successful life. It is for these reasons that we support legislation that requires students to meet this benchmark.

Other factors that will improve Minnesota's preparation of the future workforce and college include the following:

Academic standards: Minnesota must train its students to be the best in the world. Without correspondingly high standards, the state cannot achieve this goal. In accordance with this position, the Minnesota Chamber supports at a minimum adoption of the Common Core standards. The state academic benchmark standards and testing methodologies should be compared against international competitors. Minnesota should learn from top-performing countries and revise and raise standards accordingly. Growth models that measure student progress against state standards must be used. Sufficient progress must be made so all students master state standards before graduation.

In an effort to continue to track how Minnesota ranks internationally, the Minnesota Chamber supports the ongoing participation in TIMSS and the Program International Student Assessment (PISA) and corresponding communication strategies for the public to be aware of Minnesota student performance on a global scale.

Quality principals and superintendents: School leaders contribute an important factor in the success of a student and the creation of great schools. Due to their importance, a leadership assessment should be conducted prior to a principal being hired. Principals set the vision, guide instruction, build the budget, unite the team and lead the drive for results. They are also responsible for training teachers to use student data to drive results. Principal evaluations should be mandated and conducted by the district superintendent (or the superintendent's designee), and should use student data to conclude the principals' effectiveness.

Principal jobs are an extraordinary mix of small details and big ideas, of crisis management and long-range planning. In this time of increasing national and international demands on schools and students, principals must be highly capable as instructional leaders. For those reasons the Minnesota Chamber supports the expansion of both the Leadership Academy and the Principal's Academy.

The Minnesota Chamber also supports adoption of alternative pathways for principal certification.

School choice: Providing all students with access to, and information about, quality public school options is essential. Information should be user friendly, comparative and easily accessible through multiple communication tools. Open enrollment, education tax credits and deductions also improve school choice. These options force much needed competition into the school system and eliminate barriers that students face in accessing programs that meet their specific needs. Also forcing competition among school districts for enrollment is student-based funding formula rather than a program-based formula.

• Post-secondary enrollment options (PSEO): The Minnesota Chamber supports increased participation in PSEO, which allows students to earn college credits in high school at no cost to the student. Due to districts losing a large amount of funding that is based on student attendance, it is critical that the funding formula not create disincentives for schools to encourage student participation in post-secondary enrollment options and early graduation.

• Charter schools: Recruiting charter schools with proven results that have appropriate financial controls is one strategy that should be used to close the achievement gap. Charter schools encourage innovation into the public school system and give students more opportunity to attend a public school that best meets their individual needs.

• • Specialized sponsoring districts: The Minnesota Chamber continues to advocate legislation that encourages innovation and improved methods of delivering education. We support the creation of specialized sponsoring districts formed by a school, district, service cooperative, public or private post-secondary institutions or a group of residents to create schools with a special focus. This idea is intended to help solve the problem many charter schools face in finding sponsors with the time, resources and expertise to devote to the school. Sponsors for charter schools are typically higher education institutions or nonprofit organizations whose main focus are their own operations, not specific to operating K-12 schools.
  
  Specialized sponsoring districts present numerous opportunities for the K-12 system to respond not only to local needs and student interests, but to find ways of dealing with special issues or problems. For example, in areas of the state where declining enrollment is a serious concern, special sponsoring organizations could consolidate operational expenses or provide "alternative contracting arrangements." These arrangements could be structured so teachers or teacher groups could contract with districts to provide arts instruction, advanced science instruction, foreign language classes, etc. Instead of working at one site only, the teaching group could provide instruction at various sites.

• Alternative contracting arrangements: School boards should be given flexibility in their contracting arrangements. Current practice allows for continuing contract rights, meaning that school boards have limited ability to select services from other vendors or providers, even if they offer more competitive prices. Current law requires that both parties to a contract enter into mediation for an undefined period. If no agreement is reached on the disputed issues, both parties must declare an impasse in order for the contract to be terminated. The Minnesota Chamber supported legislation in a previous session that would allow either party to declare an impasse in negotiations after a mediation of at least 45 days. This proposal would expedite negotiations and allow one party to declare impasse, thereby terminating the contract. Schools also should be allowed to share services with other districts for the provision of services.

Miscellaneous and other services: State standards require students to attend school for a specific number of days. Taking into account multiple factors, the specifics of the school calendar should be within a school district's control.

Encourage community-based support of after-school, weekend and summer mentoring and tutoring programs. Programs should provide academic support, build critical thinking skills, and offer students the opportunity for real-world experiences. Programs should be modeled after programs worldwide that have proven track records in raising student achievement.

Teacher contract accountability: Many will only characterize the level of state aid for education as being adequate if it is annually increased. However, the current economic challenges do not allow for funding to continue to grow as it did in past decades. Instead districts need to be held accountable for operating within their means, especially regarding their teacher contracts. This contract is their largest expense.

While per-student revenues have continued to rise, school boards generally sign employee contracts that consistently outpace available revenues. As a result, districts conduct levy campaigns to close the gap in revenue. School districts and school boards should not be allowed to sign a contract for which they do not have the funding.

As a result, the Minnesota Chamber recommends:

• Require contracts to be fiscally sound. Prohibit districts from signing contracts that will require a referendum to finance.

• Financial transparency so revenue and spending decisions are available and understandable to the public. Create a structural balance law that requires districts to report their expected revenues and expenditures. Reports should certify that revenues are sufficient to finance all contracted obligations. Hold superintendents and finance directors accountable for compliance.

Teacher pensions: It is projected that over the next 10 to 20 years half of the current teachers in Minnesota will reach retirement eligibility. This shift provides an opportunity to align teacher compensation and retirement benefits to a private-sector model. With this large shift of teachers moving into retirement in the next decade, changes must be made immediately that align new teacher contracts to private-sector defined contribution plans and allow school boards to decide, based on their budgets, whether they can match a percentage of teacher retirements savings for the teachers entering retirement.

Business Impact

Our state's demographer tells us that growth in our workforce is decelerating and will continue to do so until 2025. More so than ever, we need every high school graduate to be ready for work or higher education. A 2010 Georgetown University study stated that nearly 70 percent of Minnesota's workforce will require some higher education. To get students to the point of being able to graduate from high school, the system must start requiring more of students at a younger age. In addition, the populations that are growing in Minnesota are the same segments of the community that are on the wrong side of the achievement gap. Every child must be educated and prepared to participate in the workforce. A large part of Minnesota's current student population is lacking in such academic success. In 2009, only 34 percent of 11th-graders passed the state math standards. Educating every child is not only important to families, but it is also a key factor in building the kind of economy that makes Minnesota a great place to live.

Almost every district shows a significant number of students falling farther behind in the skills necessary to succeed in today's economy. Evidence shows that despite diverse challenges, all students can meet high standards when they are challenged.

Minnesota's educational challenge is clear: Bring student achievement up to world standards and simultaneously accelerate the learning of the students who are the farthest behind. Both of these problems are solvable. The Business Plan for K-12 Education proposes to do this by targeting resources to underachieving students and investing more in education's lynchpin – teachers. Both are the key to rise above our challenge and to preserve a high standard of living for all Minnesotans.