2017 Minnesota Legislative Priorities

Priority 1: Keep Students in the Classroom Learning

Student Inclusion and Engagement Act: Create a comprehensive approach to increase the use of alternatives to suspensions,
and data systems. Specific priorities within the bill include:
Requiring administrator and staff training on alternatives such as restorative justice, funding trainings and resources, and r
interventions prior to excluding students.
Improving access to learning opportunities when students are suspended and require re-engagement plans for students upo
Rationale:
Student suspension has been shown to be ineffective and may increase negative behaviors. Student suspension negatively im
student will drop out.
Restorative justice, as an alternative to suspension, has been shown to improve student behavior and improve school climat
Teachers want to be trained on alternatives to suspension. Disaggregated

Priority 2: Increase Teacher Quality and Diversity

Licensure process: Create a clear and transparent tiered licensure system that is understandable, particularly for out-of-state an
Rational:
The current system is too complex and lacks transparency, evidenced by a recent report from the Office of the Legislative A
significant changes.
A clear licensure process would allow for targeted recruitment of high-quality teachers from beyond Minnesotas borders.

Competitive funding: Expand the Collaborative Urban Educator program and open it up to more institutions that seek to recruit
increasing teacher diversity.
Rationale:
Some programs are achieving positive results, both in the diversity of their enrollment, and their success in mentoring and s
should reward and expand the reach of programs achieving strong outcome in terms of graduation, licensure, and retention

Teacher preparation report card: Disaggregate key metrics on the teacher prep report card passed in 2015 by race.
Rationale:
Disaggregating the data would help prospective teacher candidates and education stakeholders understand which programs
Programs that are successfully training teacher candidates and supporting them once they teaching should be rewar ded an
programs struggling to diversify.