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A bill for an act
relating to education; modifying academic growth reporting requirements for state
assessments; amending Minnesota Statutes 2024, sections 120B.302, subdivision
2; 120B.305, subdivision 2; Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, sections 120B.12,
subdivision 2; 120B.35, subdivision 3.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1.
Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, section 120B.12, subdivision 2, is amended
to read:
Subd. 2.
Identification; report.
(a) Each school district must screen every student
enrolled in kindergarten, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 using a screening tool approved by
the Department of Education three times each school year: (1) within the first six weeks of
the school year; (2) by February 15 each year; and (3) within the last six weeks of the school
year. Students enrolled in kindergarten, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3, including multilingual
learners, students receiving special education services, and students enrolled in dual language
immersion programs, must be universally screened for mastery of foundational reading
skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, oral language, and for
characteristics of dyslexia as measured by a screening tool approved by the Department of
Education. The screening for characteristics of dyslexia may be integrated with universal
screening for mastery of foundational skills and expressive or receptive language mastery.
The screening tool used must be a valid and reliable universal screener that is highly
correlated with foundational reading skills. For students reading at grade level, beginning
in the winter of grade 2, the oral reading fluency screener may be used to assess reading
difficulties, including characteristics of dyslexia, without requiring a separate screening of
each subcomponent of foundational reading skills.
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(b)
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A district must submit data on student performance in kindergarten, grade 1, grade
2, and grade 3 on foundational reading skills
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,
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to the Department of Education in the annual
local literacy plan submission due on June 15,
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including
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:
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(1)
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phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, and oral language
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to the Department
of Education in the annual local literacy plan submission due on June 15.
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;
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(2) the number of students reading at grade level; and
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(3) the number of students demonstrating typical or above-typical progress, as defined
by the approved screening tool.
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(b)
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(c)
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For students enrolled in dual language immersion programs:
(1) if students are screened in the partner language, they must be screened at the same
interval as the screenings in English under paragraph (a);
(2) if the program provides instruction in foundational reading skills in English, the
students receiving that instruction must be screened in English;
(3) if the program provides instruction in foundational reading skills in the partner
language, the students receiving that instruction must be screened in the partner language;
(4) if no screener is available in the partner language, the districts must identify how
students' reading proficiency is assessed and how the districts determine and provide targeted
reading instruction in the partner language and supports to students identified as needing
additional support in developing mastery of foundational reading skills; and
(5) the partner language screening tool must be approved by the district for kindergarten
through grade 3 students.
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(c)
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(d)
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Students in grades 4 and above, including multilingual learners and students
receiving special education services, who are not reading at grade level must be screened
for reading difficulties, including characteristics of dyslexia, using a screening tool approved
by the Department of Education, and must continue to receive evidence-based instruction,
interventions, and progress monitoring until the students achieve grade-level proficiency.
A parent, in consultation with a teacher, may opt a student out of the literacy screener if the
parent and teacher decide that continuing to screen would not be beneficial to the student.
In such limited cases, the student must continue to receive progress monitoring and literacy
interventions.
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(d)
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(e)
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Reading screeners in English, and in the predominant languages of district students
where practicable, must identify and evaluate students' areas of academic need related to
literacy. The district also must monitor the progress and provide reading instruction
appropriate to the specific needs of multilingual learners. The district must use an approved,
developmentally appropriate, and culturally responsive screener and annually report summary
screener results to the commissioner by June 15 in the form and manner determined by the
commissioner.
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(e)
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(f)
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The district also must include in its local literacy plan under subdivision 4a, a
summary of the district's efforts to screen, identify, and provide interventions to students
who demonstrate characteristics of dyslexia as measured by a screening tool approved by
the Department of Education. Districts are strongly encouraged to use a MTSS framework.
With respect to students screened or identified under paragraph (a), the report must include:
(1) a summary of the district's efforts to screen for characteristics of reading difficulties,
including dyslexia;
(2) the number of students universally screened for that reporting year;
(3) the number of students demonstrating characteristics of dyslexia for that year; and
(4) an explanation of how students identified under this subdivision are provided with
alternate instruction and interventions under section
125A.56, subdivision 1
.
Sec. 2.
Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 120B.302, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
Subd. 2.
Comprehensive assessment system.
The commissioner, with advice from
experts with appropriate technical qualifications and experience and stakeholders,
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including
students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12,
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must include state-developed tests in
the comprehensive assessment system. State-developed tests administered to all students
in a subject other than writing must include multiple choice questions.
Sec. 3.
Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 120B.305, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
Subd. 2.
Reporting requirements.
(a) Reporting of state assessment results must:
(1) provide timely, useful, and understandable information on the performance of
individual students, schools, school districts, and the state;
(2) include a growth indicator of student achievement; and
(3) determine whether students have met the state's academic standards.
(b) The commissioner must ensure that for annual computer-adaptive assessments:
(1) individual student performance data and achievement reports are available within
three school days of when students take an assessment except in a year when an assessment
reflects new performance standards;
(2) growth information is available
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and reported
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for each student
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from the student's first
assessment to each proximate assessment using a constant
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in grades 3 through 8, calculated
based on the magnitude of change in the student's score on a
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measurement scale
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that is
continuous and vertically aligned across grades
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;
(3) parents, teachers, and school administrators are able to use elementary and middle
school student performance data to project students' secondary and postsecondary
achievement; and
(4) useful diagnostic information about areas of students' academic strengths and
weaknesses is available to teachers and school administrators for improving student
instruction and indicating the specific skills and concepts that should be introduced and
developed for students at given performance levels, organized by strands within subject
areas, and aligned to state academic standards.
(c) The commissioner, in consultation with the chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges
and Universities, must establish empirically derived benchmarks on the high school tests
that reveal a trajectory toward career and college readiness consistent with section
136F.302
,
subdivision 1a. The commissioner must disseminate to the public the computer-adaptive
assessments and high school test results upon receiving those results.
(d) A school, school district, or charter school
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may
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must
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provide a student's parent access
to the student's individual student performance data and achievement report that is made
available under paragraph (b), clause (1), when the performance data and report is available
to the school, school district, or charter school.
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A district or charter school must provide
individual student performance reports to a student's parent by email or United States mail
by August 15 of each year.
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(e) The commissioner must ensure that the data required under paragraph (b), clause
(1), is:
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(1) made available to districts in a file format, or via direct electronic transmission, that
a district can directly import into districts' student learning management systems and student
information systems; and
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(2) displayed in a secure online dashboard that is available to school and district
personnel, is updated as new assessment data is available, and is aggregated at the school
and district levels.
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Sec. 4.
Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, section 120B.35, subdivision 3, is amended
to read:
Subd. 3.
State growth measures; other state measures.
(a)(1) The state's educational
assessment system measuring individual students' educational growth is based on
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indicators
of current achievement that show growth relative to an individual student's prior achievement.
Indicators of achievement and prior achievement must be based on highly reliable statewide
or districtwide assessments
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change in students' scores on a continuous and vertically aligned
measurement scale. The assessment system must quantify growth based on the change in
scale score from year to year. The commissioner must set a target for annual growth for
each grade. The assessment system must enable comparison among each student's growth,
each school site's aggregate growth, each district's aggregate growth, and the annual growth
target
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.
(2) For purposes of paragraphs (b), (c), and (d), the commissioner must analyze and
report separate categories of information using the student categories identified under the
federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as most recently reauthorized, and, in
addition to "other" for each race and ethnicity, and the Karen community, seven of the most
populous Asian and Pacific Islander groups, three of the most populous Native groups,
seven of the most populous Hispanic/Latino groups, and five of the most populous Black
and African Heritage groups as determined by the total Minnesota population based on the
most recent American Community Survey; English learners under section
124D.59
; home
language; free or reduced-price meals; and all students enrolled in a Minnesota public school
who are currently or were previously in foster care, except that such disaggregation and
cross tabulation is not required if the number of students in a category is insufficient to yield
statistically reliable information or the results would reveal personally identifiable information
about an individual student.
(b) The commissioner, in consultation with a stakeholder group that includes assessment
and evaluation directors, district staff, experts in culturally responsive teaching, and
researchers, must implement an appropriate growth model that compares the difference in
students' achievement scores over time, and includes criteria for identifying schools and
school districts that demonstrate academic progress or progress toward English language
proficiency. The model may be used to advance educators' professional development and
replicate programs that succeed in meeting students' diverse learning needs. Data on
individual teachers generated under the model are personnel data under section
13.43
. The
model must allow users to:
(1) report student growth consistent with this paragraph; and
(2) for all student categories, report and compare aggregated and disaggregated state
student growth and, under section
120B.11, subdivision 2
, clause (2), student learning and
outcome data using the student categories identified under the federal Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, as most recently reauthorized, and other student categories under
paragraph (a), clause (2).
The commissioner must report measures of student growth and, under section
120B.11,
subdivision 2
, clause (2), student learning and outcome data, consistent with this paragraph,
including the English language development, academic progress, and oral academic
development of English learners and their native language development if the native language
is used as a language of instruction, and include data on all pupils enrolled in a Minnesota
public school course or program who are currently or were previously counted as an English
learner under section
124D.59
. In addition, the commissioner must report language
development outcomes of the target language of instruction other than English for all students
who are in a dual language immersion program or who are enrolled in a Minnesota public
school course or program in which the objective is improving or maintaining the students'
native language.
(c) When reporting student performance under section
120B.36, subdivision 1
, the
commissioner annually, beginning July 1, 2011, must report two core measures indicating
the extent to which current high school graduates are being prepared for postsecondary
academic and career opportunities:
(1) a preparation measure indicating the number and percentage of high school graduates
in the most recent school year who completed course work important to preparing them for
postsecondary academic and career opportunities, consistent with the core academic subjects
required for admission to Minnesota's public colleges and universities as determined by the
Office of Higher Education under chapter 136A; and
(2) a rigorous coursework measure indicating the number and percentage of high school
graduates in the most recent school year who successfully completed one or more
college-level advanced placement, international baccalaureate, postsecondary enrollment
options including concurrent enrollment, other rigorous courses of study under section
120B.021, subdivision 1a
, or industry certification courses or programs.
When reporting the core measures under clauses (1) and (2), the commissioner must also
analyze and report separate categories of information using the student categories identified
under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as most recently reauthorized,
and other student categories under paragraph (a), clause (2).
(d) When reporting student performance under section
120B.36, subdivision 1
, the
commissioner annually, beginning July 1, 2014, must report summary data on school safety
and students' engagement and connection at school, consistent with the student categories
identified under paragraph (a), clause (2). The summary data under this paragraph are
separate from and must not be used for any purpose related to measuring or evaluating the
performance of classroom teachers. The commissioner, in consultation with qualified experts
on student engagement and connection and classroom teachers, must identify highly reliable
variables that generate summary data under this paragraph. The summary data may be used
at school, district, and state levels only. Any data on individuals received, collected, or
created that are used to generate the summary data under this paragraph are nonpublic data
under section
13.02, subdivision 9
.
(e) For purposes of statewide educational accountability, the commissioner must identify
and report measures that demonstrate the success of learning year program providers under
sections
123A.05
and
124D.68
, among other such providers, in improving students'
graduation outcomes. The commissioner, beginning July 1, 2015, must annually report
summary data on:
(1) the four- and six-year graduation rates of students under this paragraph;
(2) the percent of students under this paragraph whose progress and performance levels
are meeting career and college readiness benchmarks under section
120B.307
; and
(3) the success that learning year program providers experience in:
(i) identifying at-risk and off-track student populations by grade;
(ii) providing successful prevention and intervention strategies for at-risk students;
(iii) providing successful recuperative and recovery or reenrollment strategies for off-track
students; and
(iv) improving the graduation outcomes of at-risk and off-track students.
The commissioner may include in the annual report summary data on other education
providers serving a majority of students eligible to participate in a learning year program.
(f) The commissioner, in consultation with recognized experts with knowledge and
experience in assessing the language proficiency and academic performance of all English
learners enrolled in a Minnesota public school course or program who are currently or were
previously counted as an English learner under section
124D.59
, must identify and report
appropriate and effective measures to improve current categories of language difficulty and
assessments, and monitor and report data on students' English proficiency levels, program
placement, and academic language development, including oral academic language.
(g) When reporting four- and six-year graduation rates, the commissioner or school
district must disaggregate the data by student categories according to paragraph (a), clause
(2).
(h) A school district must inform parents and guardians that volunteering information
on student categories not required by the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act is optional and will not violate the privacy of students or their
families, parents, or guardians. The notice must state the purpose for collecting the student
data.