2001 Minnesota Statutes

     120B.031 Implementing the Profile of Learning. 

    Subdivision 1.    School site determines required content 
 standards.  (a) Notwithstanding any rule or law to the 
 contrary, by August 15 of each year, each school district, area 
 learning center, and charter school must notify the commissioner 
 of the preparatory and high school content standards required at 
 each site under paragraph (b). 

    (b)(1) Each public school site, by a majority vote of the 
 licensed teachers and administrators at the site voting jointly 
 and by a majority vote of the school board; 

    (2) each area learning center, by a majority vote of the 
 licensed teachers and administrators at the site voting jointly 
 and by a majority vote of the school board of the district in 
 which the center is located; and 

    (3) each charter school, by a majority vote of the licensed 
 teachers and administrators at the charter school voting jointly 
 and with approval of the school's sponsor, must determine the 
 number of preparatory and high school content standards that the 
 school site requires students to complete, including the number 
 of high school content standards students must complete to 
 graduate. 

    (c) If a school site and the local school board, the area 
 learning center and the school board of the district in which 
 the center is located, or a charter school and its sponsor, are 
 unable to agree on the preparatory or high school content 
 standards required for students under paragraph (b), students at 
 the school site must complete the state-required content 
 standards.  

    (d) In addition to the reporting requirement under 
 paragraph (a), a district, area learning center, and charter 
 school shall report to the commissioner the schedule, by school 
 year, that each school site will use to implement all the 
 state-required preparatory and high school content standards. 

    (e) Each district shall continue to implement the profile 
 of learning, provide learning opportunities for all students in 
 all preparatory content standards in learning areas one to nine, 
 and provide learning opportunities for students sufficient to 
 meet the state graduation requirements in the high school 
 content standards in all learning areas.  A district shall offer 
 at least one foreign language in learning area ten. 

    (f) To implement preparatory and high school content 
 standards, school sites must work to improve the scope and 
 sequence of curriculum, research-based instructional skills of 
 teachers and other district staff who work with students, and 
 alternative assessments of student achievement. 

    Subd. 2.    Transcript data.  For the 1998-1999 school 
 year and later, a student's transcript shall record work 
 completed in each content standard implemented in the district, 
 area learning center, or charter school.  For high school 
 content standards completed before the 2000-2001 school year, a 
 student may request that the transcript record a "complete" or 
 "incomplete" and not the numeric score recorded in an earlier 
 school year. 

    Subd. 3.    Performance assessments.  Districts, area 
 learning centers, and charter schools are not required to use 
 state or locally developed performance packages to assess 
 student achievement of a content standard.  A district, area 
 learning center, or charter school must select performance 
 assessments that have a grading system comparable to the 
 criteria established under the definition of rubric contained in 
 rule and consistent with subdivision 9.  Districts, area 
 learning centers, and charter schools may use one or more 
 assessment methods to measure student performance on one or more 
 content standards.  The commissioner shall not mandate in rule 
 or otherwise the assessment methods that local sites must use to 
 meet the requirements under this section.  

    Subd. 4.    Rigorous course of study; waiver.  (a) Upon 
 receiving a student's application approved by the student's 
 parent or guardian, and with the recommendation of the student's 
 teacher, a school district, area learning center, or charter 
 school must declare that a student has completed a content 
 standard if the local school board, the school board of the 
 school district in which the area learning center is located, or 
 charter school board of directors determines that: 

    (1) the student is participating in a course of study 
 including an advanced placement or international baccalaureate 
 course or a learning opportunity outside the curriculum of the 
 district, area learning center, or charter school that is 
 equally or more rigorous than the content standard required by 
 the district, area learning center, or charter school or the 
 state graduation rule; and 

    (2) achieving the content standard to be waived would 
 preclude the student from participating in the rigorous course 
 of study or learning opportunity. 

    (b) A student who satisfactorily completes a post-secondary 
 enrollment options course or program under section 124D.09, that 
 has been approved under paragraph (c), is not required to 
 complete other requirements of the content standards 
 corresponding to that specific rigorous course of study. 

    (c) By August 15, 2002, and each year thereafter, the board 
 of regents of the University of Minnesota, the board of trustees 
 of the Minnesota state colleges and universities, and the 
 governing boards of Minnesota private colleges shall determine 
 the courses offered at each post-secondary institution under the 
 post-secondary enrollment options program that meet the 
 requirements of paragraph (a) and shall notify the commissioner 
 of those courses offered that meet the requirements.  The 
 commissioner shall make available a listing of the 
 post-secondary enrollment options courses offered at 
 post-secondary institutions meeting the requirements of this 
 section. 

    (d) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) or (b), a student who 
 entered ninth grade before the 2001-2002 school year and 
 satisfactorily completes an advanced placement or international 
 baccalaureate course, or a post-secondary enrollment options 
 course under section 124D.09, satisfies the requirements of the 
 content standards corresponding to that specific rigorous course 
 of study. 

    Subd. 5.    Students held harmless; waiver.  A local 
 school board, the school board of the school district in which 
 the area learning center is located, or a charter school board 
 of directors may waive any content standard for a student or 
 group of students who entered ninth grade before the 2000-2001 
 school year if the governing board of the school site determines 
 that the students could not meet the site's content standard due 
 to circumstances related to implementing the profile of learning 
 that were beyond the students' control.  

    Subd. 6.    Student transfers; other waivers.  A 
 district, area learning center, and charter school must 
 establish processes by which to transfer as completed:  

    (1) those content standards that other school sites within 
 the district or other public schools verify on transcripts as 
 completed; 

    (2) the work that educational institutions outside the 
 state accept for completing the equivalent of content standards 
 and verify on transcripts as completed; and 

    (3) a student's opportunities to complete high school 
 content standards through learning the student acquires outside 
 the district's curriculum, if the local governing board 
 determines the work or learning the student completed differs 
 from the content standards at the school site in which the 
 student is enrolled and the student is unable to fulfill the 
 content standards at the enrolling site. 

    Subd. 7.    Completion of a content standard.  
 Districts, area learning centers, and charter schools may: 

    (1) establish more than one content standard in a single 
 course, consistent with section 120B.02, paragraph (f); 

    (2) develop a system allowing students to meet a content 
 standard through different subject areas; and 

    (3) determine at what grade levels a content standard may 
 be completed. 

    Subd. 8.    Records.  A district, area learning center, 
 and charter school shall maintain records of the following at 
 each site to submit to the commissioner for audit at the 
 commissioner's request: 

    (1) examples of local assessments used to measure students' 
 completion of a content standard; 

    (2) aggregate data on students' completion of each high 
 school content standard; 

    (3) aggregate data on each year's high school graduates, 
 including the number of high school content standards completed, 
 and the level of achievement earned on each standard; 

    (4) anonymous examples of student work in each high school 
 content standard; and 

    (5) the number and identity of available content standards, 
 the number of required content standards, and the number of 
 content standards completed by students. 

    Subd. 9.    Scoring.  The grade level of a student shall 
 not prohibit a student from receiving the highest state exemplar 
 score upon completion of a content standard.  Teachers may 
 assign a score of "0" to incomplete student work on a standard.  
 The assessment of the content standard must be included as part 
 of the student's grade for a subject or course.  

    Subd. 10.    High standards tool library.  (a) The 
 commissioner shall maintain a high standards tool library that 
 offers teachers in each of the content standards at all grade 
 levels examples of assessment tools to assess students' 
 achievement of standards, examples of lesson plans, best 
 practices methods, research on proven methods, and examples of 
 exemplar work aligned to the content standards. 

    (b) By June 30, 2000, the commissioner shall have 
 established a variety of tools described in paragraph (a).  The 
 tool library must be interactive and allow teachers to submit a 
 variety of tools.  In addition to commissioner-approved tools, 
 the commissioner shall reserve a portion of the tool library for 
 tools submitted by teachers without the commissioner's review. 

    Subd. 11.    Technology and recordkeeping.  (a) The 
 commissioner shall designate to school districts, area learning 
 centers, and charter schools software packages for reporting 
 student performance on the content standards.  The commissioner 
 shall ensure that the designated recordkeeping software is 
 capable of transferring student records between schools and 
 school districts and is available to school districts at a 
 minimal cost.  The commissioner shall convene an advisory group 
 composed of qualified experts and interested stakeholders to 
 recommend to districts and charter schools recordkeeping 
 practices under the graduation rule.  The commissioner must also 
 report on technology needs for efficient daily classroom 
 recordkeeping and accountability reporting. 

    (b) The commissioner shall notify the education committees 
 of the legislature that the requirements in paragraph (a) have 
 been met. 

    Subd. 12.    Examination and evaluation panel.  The 
 commissioner shall establish an academic panel to examine, 
 evaluate, and sustain the rigor of the content standards 
 contained in the Minnesota graduation rule.  The commissioner 
 shall consider regional representation when selecting members 
 for the panel.  The panel shall be composed of: 

    (1) two teachers selected by Education Minnesota, one of 
 which shall have been a teacher of the year, and one with 
 national board certification; 

    (2) deans of the colleges of education from the University 
 of Minnesota, a Minnesota state college, and a Minnesota private 
 college; 

    (3) a director of curriculum and instruction; 

    (4) an assessment practitioner; 

    (5) a school board member selected by the Minnesota school 
 boards association; and 

    (6) an elementary school principal, a middle school 
 principal, and a high school principal, each selected by the 
 state organization representing such principals. 

    In the process of examining, evaluating, and sustaining the 
 rigor of the state standards, the panel shall consult with 
 recognized national and international education experts on 
 academic standards and the independent office of educational 
 accountability under section 120B.31, subdivision 3.  The panel 
 shall receive and analyze the report from the external review of 
 the profile of learning standards, procedures, and assessments 
 now underway through a contract with the department of children, 
 families, and learning.  The external review must evaluate the 
 quality of the state's standards and assessments as an 
 integrated educational system.  The panel may make 
 recommendations for refining the profile of learning based on 
 the external review and must compare and report the rigor of the 
 state standards and the north star standard by December 15, 
 2000, to the commissioner.  The recommendations may include 
 changes effected through administrative changes and changes in 
 statutes or rule.  Beginning July 1, 2001, and on every 
 even-numbered year thereafter, the panel shall submit its 
 evaluation of the rigor of the state standards and make 
 recommendations to the commissioner. 

    HIST: 1998 c 397 art 4 s 51; 1998 c 398 art 5 s 9; 2000 c 500 
 s 3-14