Changes for the Future

• Collaboration & strategic partnerships
• Capitalizing on online opportunities keeping a balance with traditional discourse
• Recruiting/retaining a culturally competent teaching force
• Quality through collaboration in professional learning communities
• Pre-K through adult
• Re-establish a common purpose for education
• Expanding learning platforms
• Impacts of economic disparity
• International partners
• Teacher is the core for change
• Need for policy and leadership initiatives: Teachers as leaders
• Conceptualize & discuss the achievement gap differently
• Local teaching for global awareness
• Unleashing human potential
• Partner w/ state & national legislators
• Focus on needs of individuals

2007 Legislative Session

MACTE is committed to having a highly qualified teacher in every classroom.  The Minnesota Board of Teaching, the Minnesota Department of Education, Education Minnesota, educational policymakers, school district administrators, school boards, and parents also express this commitment.

What really does stand behind the “highly qualified teacher” heading? It denotes a person who has obtained a bachelor’s degree, is “fully licensed in the core academic subject” that he/she teaches, and has passed the required state licensure tests. However, it is certainly more than a title.  We would refer you to the substance of the definition. It also means someone who:

• Meets the Minnesota standards of effective practice
• Assures the academic success of every learner
• Advocates for every learner
• Demonstrates a positive regard for the safety and welfare of all learners
• Teaches flexibly and manages the classroom responsibly
• Articulates well with parents, teachers and administrators
• Demonstrates a strong commitment to the advancement of shared principles of the school and its data-driven decision-making processes

Minnesota’s current rigorous standards for licensure serve students best. Rigorous teacher licensure ensures strong content knowledge and effective teaching skills. Standards-based licensure programs use multiple measures of content, pedagogy, dispositions, and demonstration of classroom teaching ability. All of the MACTE institutions ensure that individuals are prepared to work with children and youth.  Institutions are committed to working with individuals to meet standards. 

Any route to licensure should ensure a highly qualified educator. Today’s classrooms are demanding and complex. Each classroom contains learners with different abilities, languages, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds. In effective teacher preparation programs, new teachers develop skill in differentiating instruction for learners and helping those learners to develop their own knowledge of content and skills. The integration of content knowledge and pedagogical skills allows teachers to make the content comprehensible to all types of learners and provides the specific knowledge about content specific procedures. Pedagogical instruction and practice during clinical experiences help new teachers manage current classroom complexities. Assessment of candidates’ ability to blend knowledge and skills in practice is imperative for ensuring a well qualified candidate for the classrooms in Minnesota.

All routes to licensure must meet the state standards. All routes to licensure should meet all standards. Minnesota has already invested in proven methods of alternative licensure to meet the needs of career changers who wish to go into teaching. Alternative programs involve weekend and evening programs and online options. All include clinical experiences, content specific pedagogy courses, and evaluation of dispositions.
 

Action Needed:

All teachers new to the profession and new to the state must meet all of the licensure standards

• The legislature should reaffirm the Board of Teaching role in requiring all teachers to meet standards.
• Incentives for hard to staff areas should be provided by the legislature
• Alternate delivery of content for rural and small schools should be supported by state funds so that all children have access to high quality and fully licensed teachers.
• Teacher development and teacher retention serve students best.  Minnesota must support on-going professional and career development for all educators.

 

2007 Legislative Session

MACTE is committed to the success and happiness of all Minnesota children, youth and families.  In this work, MACTE chooses to support and collaborate with groups such as Ready-4-K, NAEYC, NCCCC, and MnAECTE.  The following research findings support aggressive early childhood goals in Minnesota.

Developmentally-appropriate early learning experiences are critical to the success of children later in school and life.   Children who experience early education experiences are more successful in kindergarten and are 40% less likely to be identified for special education and grade retention.  As young adults, these individuals are more likely to graduate from high school, be literate and attend post-secondary education.  In addition, their median annual earnings are higher and are more successful in some other metrics of adult success.

Through active exploration, children in early childhood education settings are provided the opportunity to engage in a broad base of important language, general knowledge, social interaction and experiential skill competencies that serve as a basis for school learning.  Children experience rapid social-emotional, physical and cognitive growth during the first five years of life.  Rich and stimulating experiences maximizes the growth opportunity during these years.  Challenges to health and learning during these years cannot be recovered fully.

In order for every child to succeed, responsive and comprehensive family and community partnerships must be established, mobilizing all appropriate community resources in support of child and family needs as soon as needs are identified.  The Ready-4-K “Building Initiative” project and the Rochester project funded by the Rochester Foundation are examples of coordinated efforts to develop community connections which serve the needs of children and their families during the early, preschool years of life.  Integrated services are more likely to provide coherent and comprehensive assistance across service providers which results in maximized student readiness and rates of families who thrive.

Costs of early childhood school readiness screenings, learning experiences and family education save much more in expenses to families and society across the life of affected individuals.  Rob Grunewald and Art Rolnick of the Minnesota Federal Reserve Bank cite research results -- every $1 spent on early education saves taxpayers up to $12.  These savings consist of education, welfare and crime savings as well as increased tax earnings.  In addition, savings and benefits to families are significant.

A substantial kindergarten experience is necessary to assure all children enter later academic learning situations ready to learn.  Research shows that developmentally appropriate full day kindergarten results in greater achievement gains in first grade and beyond for students.  These gains hold for students of color and students of poverty, therefore serving to decrease achievement gaps.

Action Needed:

All children must arrive to school healthy and ready to learn.

• The legislature should mandate and fund all-day kindergarten for all Minnesota children.
• The Legislature should mandate and fund a full screening (development, health, hearing, dental, speech) for all Minnesota children at age three and at the beginning of kindergarten.  Organizations, agencies, schools and communities should coordinate processes of referral and available services to address the needs of children with identified needs and their families.
• The Legislature should fund the study of the costs and benefits of universal preschool for Minnesota children.
• The Legislature should fund the study of the needs of rapidly growing numbers of preschool-aged Minnesota children with significant and severe disabilities and their families in order to recommend, implement and coordinate appropriate services and interventions.

 

2007 Legislative Session

Enrollment of students of color in Minnesota continues to increase, while enrollment of White non-Hispanic continues to decline. According to the 2006 State of Students of Color, Minnesota had an enrollment of 20% students of color in Minnesota schools. Despite modest gains the achievement gap continues, especially in math, reading, and writing. The report further affirms that students of color are less likely to be prepared for higher education and less likely to enroll in college preparation curriculum in high school. There is considerable overlap of low achievement with poverty, and poverty often correlates with race.

Helping students of color access higher education
A major barrier to students of color in admission to higher education is the lack of experience with higher education in the students’ environment. In order to sustain their motivation as they move from elementary to middle school, students need to see their future role in higher education. The building blocks to ensure success include making sure students are prepared with requisite knowledge and skills as well as encouragement. All the influential people in students’ live play a role, including middle school parents, to establish expectations for students’ future aspirations at two-year and four-year institutions. Family education beginning in middle school is needed to meet this goal. Additionally, the support through campus visits, summer camp experiences on campus, and ongoing tutoring programs provide the tools to help students see a way to get there. Funding for higher education and K-12 schools is needed to further these critical relationships.
 
Building a workforce of teachers of color  
Teachers of color serve as mentors, role models, cultural translators, and advocates for students of color according to a 2004 report, Minority Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention from Brown University. The knowledge of community and the world that teachers of color possess affects their interaction with students as well as their effectiveness of instruction. White teachers can misinterpret behaviors of students of color, contributing to their overrepresentation in special education. Teachers who understand the reality of students of color and their families can help overcome the cultural barriers that can block communication between schools and families.

The teacher preparation pipeline begins in high school. Funding is needed for pre-college support programs that include skill development as well as apprenticeships in schools so that students have an experience in a teaching role.  Scholarships for potential teachers of color, support structures for test preparation, and creation of a support network for inservice and preservice teachers of color are needed.

Action Needed by Minnesota Legislature:

• Funding for programs to support middle and high school students in poverty so that access to higher education is in their picture of the future
• Funding for scholarships and incentives for new Teachers of Color

Action Needed by Higher Education:

• Further partnerships with K-12 schools to develop college access programs
• Recruit more faculty of color
• Utilize personal recruitment strategies targeting students of color who may be interested in teaching

 

2007 Legislative Session

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) released a report titled Induction into Learning Communities (http://www.nctaf.org/home.php). This research builds on their earlier report, No Dream Denied (2003), which re-directed the nation’s attention from teacher shortage to teacher retention. Induction into Learning Communities “examines data on induction’s impact on teacher retention and emerging information on induction’s effects on improving student learning, and goes in-depth on models of strong mentoring programs in the U.S. and comprehensive induction systems in other countries.”  Based on both a national and international review of successful induction programs, NCTAF found the following:

• Induction should be a stage in teacher development.
• Induction should support entry into a learning community.
• Mentoring is a useful component of induction, but it is only one element of a comprehensive induction system.
• External networks supported by online technologies can add value.
• Induction is a good investment. Teachers become more effective with experience and teacher effectiveness is directly related to P-12 student learning.  Highly effective teachers tend to stay in the profession longer, saving the district money for recruiting and creating a more stable learning environment for students.

Several years ago, the Minnesota Board of Teaching in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education commissioned eight teacher induction programs to be piloted across the state.  Although the results of those pilots were not widely disseminated, they supported the findings in the 2005 NCTAF report: engaging teachers from all experience levels in a learning community has a positive impact on teaching and learning. 

Action Needed:

All teachers new to the profession engage in a year-long induction and mentoring program. 

• The Minnesota legislature should increase funding to all school districts by 1%.  These monies would be used to provide structured induction and mentoring for all new teachers in the district. 
• Board of Teaching-approved teacher preparation programs would partner with districts to assist with new teacher induction. 

 

Each year MACTE's executive committee sets goals. Accomplishments for the year are generally reviewed the following spring. The following attachments include goals set since 2002. Also included is the 30th year celebratory powerpoint presentation as shown in 2003.

Meeting minutes from most fall, winter and spring meetings.

Meeting Agendas from 2001- 2007 for fall, winter and spring.

Teacher Education Congress Agendas: Fall 2000- Winter 2007