Today the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Mark Janus, a child support specialist for the state of Illinois. Janus sued his union, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), arguing that he should not have to pay mandatory dues—or “fair share” fees—which unions charge to workers who choose not to join the union but are still represented by them in collective bargaining. Janus...
This week, over one hundred teachers, administrators, teacher preparation providers, superintendents, and advocates attended the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board’s (PELSB) training sessions on the new, four-tiered teacher licensure system. The two sessions provided general information on the four different teacher licenses, the forthcoming online application system, supports PELSB can provide, and an opportunity for attendees to ask PELSB staff questions.
It’s been a busy few...
When I walked into a sophomore mathematics class at Ron Brown College Preparatory, an innovative high school in Washington DC that serves male students of color, the students were sitting at desks arranged in a circle, deep in conversation, and engaged in their lesson. Projected on the whiteboard was a bar chart of college enrollment statistics in the United States, broken down by race.
The teacher was walking around the...
Earlier this year, Julie Cook published a compelling post about her complicated relationship with teaching—one that ultimately led her to a long-term career at her school.
I was the teacher who left.
Bewildered by the unrelenting demands of the job, and not impermeable to the demoralized banter of my colleagues, I left my 5th grade teaching post—and the teaching profession—after...
On May 10, the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools recognized four schools at the third annual Innovation Awards event. Additionally, under a new award program established this year, one educator was honored with the Minnesota Charter School Leadership Award.
Innovation Awards categories are derived from Minnesota statute (124E.01), which defines the purposes of charter schools in the state:
Deanna Hron—a kindergarten teacher at King Elementary School in rural Deer River, MN—received the Educator Leadership Award at the Community Schools National Forum in Baltimore last week, in recognition of her “strong leadership in advocating for community schools.”
She was one of two recipients for this national honor, and was recognized in front of over 2,000 community schools practitioners, families, youth, nonprofit and education leaders...
On Friday, April 20, the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) met to do final interviews for the three finalists for the executive director position, as well as to go over the new rule draft. The day prior, the three finalists had answered questions that had been provided by the public. The three finalists were:
Last week, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) held the last meeting of their Reporting and Recognition Committee, which was formed after MDE submitted the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan to the US Department of Education (USDE) in September 2017.
The Committee was formed because there were a couple of key components that did not have to be finalized by the September submission deadline—namely, school recognition and data reporting—but on which MDE needed to receive stakeholder input. In order to get feedback in these two areas, MDE created two Subcommittees...
While the legislature takes a break this week to observe Easter and Passover, we wanted to provide an overview of some of the most talked about education policy topics, so far, from the 2018 Minnesota legislative session. Even though it’s not a budget year, Governor Dayton’s last session is shaping up to be filled with important and contentious discussions. From school safety to “Academic Balance,” the education policy topics discussed at the Capitol have touched on issues that are relevant in the current national and state political climate.
This post will discuss four education...
On February 22, the Innovation Research Zones (IRZ) Advisory Panel convened to decide which of the nine IRZ applications they would recommend to Commissioner Cassellius for approval. An important note: the IRZ legislation put a cap on the number of IRZs the Commissioner could approve—up to three in the seven-county metropolitan area and up to three in greater Minnesota.
The Panel decided to recommend four for approval, which were subsequently approved by the Commissioner...