Legislative Session number- 81

Bill Name: SF3286

E Modifying certain high school graduation requirements; modifying the
requirement for school calendars to include additional days of student
instruction, requiring instruction or staff development training relating to
implementing preparatory and high school content standards; defining school site
as a separate facility or a separate program within a facility recognized by the
local school board as a school site for curriculum and assessment purposes;
eliminating the requirement for the commissioner of children, families and
learning to develop and disseminate to school districts a uniform method for
reporting student performance on the profile of learning; specifying the
learning areas of the profile of learning; eliminating the annual reporting
requirement of the commissioner relating to the status of graduation
requirements implementation, requiring the commissioner to publish a report by
school site, area learning center and charter school the required preparatory
and high school content standards and the number of individual student waivers
approved by the district, area learning center or charter school; requiring
school districts to integrate required and elective content standards in the
scope and sequence of the district curriculum and exempting districts from
requirements to adopt specific provisions of the goals 2000 and the federal
school to work programs; requiring and providing for annual school site
determination of required content standards by school sites by majority vote of
licensed teachers and administrators and school boards or charter school
sponsors, requiring student completion of the state required content standards
in cases of disagreement and site reporting to the commissioner of the content
standards implementation schedule and specifying certain learning opportunities
provision requirements of school districts; requiring student transcripts to
record work completed in implemented content standards; eliminating performance
package requirements, requiring district, area learning center and charter
school selection of performance assessments with a grading system comparable to
certain criteria, prohibiting the commissioner from mandating the use of certain
assessment methods; providing for school district, area learning center or
charter school waiver of the content standards for students choosing an equal or
more rigorous course of study or satisfactorily completing approved
post-secondary enrollment options courses or programs; requiring the board of
regents of the university of Minnesota, the board of trustees of the Minnesota
state colleges and universities (MnSCU) and the governing boards of Minnesota
private colleges to annually determine and notify the commissioner of the
courses offered under the PSEO program meeting the rigorous course requirements,
list availability requirement; authorizing school boards to waive content
standards for students entering the ninth grade before a certain school year
under certain conditions; requiring the establishment of processes for student
transfers; granting districts, area learning centers and charter schools
flexibility relating to the completion of content standards; specifying certain
records maintenance requirements for commissioner audit purposes; specifying
certain scoring requirements and options, grade level of a student not to
prohibit the student from receiving the highest state exemplar score upon
completion of a content standard; requiring the commissioner to maintain a high
standards tool library for teachers to use in assessing student achievement,
requiring commissioner establishment of a variety of tools by a certain date and
requiring the library to be interactive and to allow for submission of tools by
teachers; requiring the commissioner to designate software packages for
reporting student performance on the content standards, requiring the
recordkeeping software to be capable of transferring student records between
schools and school districts, requiring the commissioner to convene an advisory
group to recommend recordkeeping practices under the graduation rule and to
report on technology needs for efficient daily classroom recordkeeping and
accountability reporting; requiring the commissioner to establish an academic
panel to examine, evaluate and sustain the rigor of the content standards
contained in the graduation rule, specifying membership requirements and duties,
requiring biennial recommendations to the commissioner; modifying certain
statewide testing requirements, authorizing school districts at the request of
the parent or guardian and with recommendation of the teacher to offer the basic
skills test beginning in grade and providing for dissemination of third and
fifth grade test results; providing for school district determination of the
meeting of local expectations of student achievement levels; requiring the
commissioner by a certain date to establish a best practices network for the
learning areas under the profile of learning, to report to the legislature by a
certain later date on recommendations relating to graduation standards rules or
realignment of standards for implementing a technical and vocational education
learning area, to contract with an independent organization to evaluate the
quality of the state standards as an integrated educational system and to make
certain graduation rule amendments; repealing certain provisions providing for
school district implementation of the profile of learning and for student
maintenance of lifework development plans and certain rules (mk, ja)