Seeking Ways to Improve Student Performance

SEEKING WAYS TO IMPROVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE

As a former teacher, I will always be interested in finding ways to help students succeed in school. Unfortunately, too many students statewide are being allowed to fall through the cracks.

Less than half of Minnesota’s students can read at grade level. Statewide proficiency in science and math is even worse.

It’s clear that changes are needed. I’ve always said literacy is the key to learning. If you can’t read well, how would you be expected to excel in any educational subject? That is why I’m authoring several proposals this session that ensure schools have the tools they need to succeed and the time needed to focus on core academic subjects.

The first proposal focuses on our commitment to foundational literacy skills in reading instruction delivered through the Science of Reading. We have heard from our schools that the Department of Education’s partnership with the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (also known as CAREI) has been limiting schools in accessing critical science of reading curriculum and instructional materials. This process was made worse by new misdirected political goals embedded into the law that distract from our focus on foundational literacy skills.

Therefore, this bill ends the partnership with CAREI and directs MDE to take up their primary role in assisting schools. We also repeal some of the new requirements included by the 2024 session that have a political or ideological purpose which distracts from the core mission of education, and ensure teachers are properly prepared to provide reading instruction grounded in the Science of Reading.

The second plan empowers parents with information and promotes education innovation through local control and flexibility. This is accomplished in identifying and revising certain programs that empower and enable our schools but come with the need to seek permission from the Commissioner of Education. These revisions shift our mindset from one of schools always meekly seeking permission from the state to a mindset of trusting our locally elected school boards, educators and parents. When those three are at the table making decisions without the heavy hand of bureaucrats, great things can happen.

The initiative would also convert the current Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center within the Department of Education to be the Office of Achievement and Innovation. In addition to assisting schools in researching and implementing practices that promote student achievement, it also will  

serve as a clearinghouse for nonprofits.

For too long, the members at these committee tables have been picking and funding the nonprofits who want to work with our schools. We need to allow our school districts to determine which nonprofits they might find helpful and have MDE conduct the due diligence to avoid shady nonprofits from taking advantage of our schools.

Finally, we would provide flexibility for school boards in both funding and relief from the more than 65 new mandates imposed on our schools in the previous biennium. Under this section, school boards would be allowed to transfer any funds that are not otherwise encumbered or limited by federal law, so long as the transfer does not inadvertently trigger additional state aid or increase a local levy. It also would allow school boards to delay implementation of many of the new mandates imposed during the 2023-24 legislative biennium.

In either case, whether flexible funding or mandate relief, the school board may adopt their action by resolution at a public meeting. These will be community decisions.

In contrast, Governor Walz has unveiled plans to cut funding for teacher pay and training, services for special needs students, and denying textbooks, while enriching his state agencies and the bureaucracy.

In my opinion, real solutions are needed for our kids. We have heard great testimony from superintendents, school boards, and teachers, and our plans reflect their input. Statewide education needs to allow flexibility and innovation. It needs to empower local schools and local control. But most of all, it needs to focus on the core priorities of learning – reading, math and science, and helping every student become proficient in these subject areas.