Minnesota’s new teacher licensing board can require inexperienced teachers to participate in mentoring programs and can specify the type of training educators receive so they can better understand students of different cultures.
Those are two of the more controversial decisions contained in an 80-page ruling by state Administrative Law Judge Barbara J. Case that was released Thursday. The Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings oversees how state agencies implement laws passed by the Legislature.
The ruling Thursday was the latest step in the state’s efforts to create a new system for licensing educators. The licensing board will review Case’s entire ruling at a special meeting Aug. 22.
Case ruled that the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board, or PELSB, was correctly interpreting the new teacher licensing law approved in 2017 when it proposed requiring educators with the lowest level of license to participate in a mentoring program.
Opponents of the rule said that would essentially exclude districts and charter schools without mentoring programs from hiring these inexperienced teachers. Judge Case agreed with the board that a mentorship program must be in place in order to hire Tier 1 licensed teachers, who typically haven’t completed a formal training program.
Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, backed the mentoring requirement saying it would help ensure properly qualified people were in front of students. The teachers union has been critical of the new licensing law because members believe it lowers the state’s standards.
“We’ve been very concerned that the law permits, for the very first time, people with no formal training in education to be hired as licensed teachers,” said Denise Specht, teachers union president. “We’re relieved to see that the judge has ruled that only districts and charter schools with qualified mentorship programs will be permitted to hire this new class of teacher.”
Judge Case also ruled that the new board acted properly when it specifically defined “cultural competency” training although she recommended the agency use a broader definition that what has already been adopted.
Such training is needed to ensure the “ability of families and educators to interact effectively with people of different cultures, native languages, and socio-economic backgrounds.”
Minnesota has been working to improve its system for licensing teachers for years. The 2017 Legislature passed a sweeping overhaul after repeatedly hearing the system was unfair to teachers from out-of-state or trained in alternative ways.
State leaders hope the changes will help address a shortage of educators in some high-demand specialties as well as diversify the state’s teaching force that is predominately white while students are increasingly diverse.