Minnesota Statutes
Chapter 122A — Teachers And Other Educators
Section 122A.414 — Alternative Teacher Pay.

Subdivision 1. Restructured pay system. A restructured alternative teacher professional pay system is established under subdivision 2 to provide incentives to encourage teachers to improve their knowledge and instructional skills in order to improve student learning and for school districts, intermediate school districts, cooperative units, as defined in section 123A.24, subdivision 2, and charter schools to recruit and retain qualified teachers, encourage qualified teachers to undertake challenging assignments, and support teachers' roles in improving students' educational achievement.
Subd. 1a. Transitional planning year. (a) To be eligible to participate in an alternative teacher professional pay system, a school district, intermediate school district, or site, at least one school year before it expects to fully implement an alternative pay system, must:
(1) submit to the department a letter of intent executed by the school district, intermediate school district and the exclusive representative of the teachers to complete a plan preparing for full implementation, consistent with subdivision 2, that may include, among other activities, training to evaluate teacher performance, a restructured school day to develop integrated ongoing site-based professional development activities, release time to develop an alternative pay system agreement, and teacher and staff training on using multiple data sources; and
(2) agree to use up to two percent of basic revenue for staff development purposes, consistent with sections 122A.60 and 122A.61, to develop the alternative teacher professional pay system agreement under this section.
(b) To be eligible to participate in an alternative teacher professional pay system, a charter school, at least one school year before it expects to fully implement an alternative pay system, must:
(1) submit to the department a letter of intent executed by the charter school and the charter school board of directors;
(2) submit the record of a formal vote by the teachers employed at the charter school indicating at least 70 percent of all teachers agree to implement the alternative pay system; and
(3) agree to use up to two percent of basic revenue for staff development purposes, consistent with sections 122A.60 and 122A.61, to develop the alternative teacher professional pay system.
(c) To be eligible to participate in an alternative teacher professional pay system, a cooperative, excluding intermediate school districts, at least one school year before it expects to fully implement an alternative pay system, must:
(1) submit to the department a letter of intent executed by the governing board of the cooperative; and
(2) submit the record of a formal vote by the teachers employed by the cooperative indicating at least 70 percent of all teachers agree to implement the alternative pay system.
(d) The commissioner may waive the planning year if the commissioner determines, based on the criteria under subdivision 2, that the school district, intermediate school district, cooperative, site or charter school is ready to fully implement an alternative pay system.
Subd. 2. Alternative teacher professional pay system. (a) To participate in this program, a school district, an intermediate school district consistent with paragraph (d), a school site, or a charter school must have a world's best workforce plan under section 120B.11 and an alternative teacher professional pay system agreement under paragraph (b). A charter school participant also must comply with subdivision 2a.
(b) The alternative teacher professional pay system agreement must:
(1) describe how teachers can achieve career advancement and additional compensation;
(2) describe how the school district, intermediate school district, school site, or charter school will provide teachers with career advancement options that allow teachers to retain primary roles in student instruction and facilitate site-focused professional development that helps other teachers improve their skills;
(3) reform the "steps and lanes" salary schedule, prevent any teacher's compensation paid before implementing the pay system from being reduced as a result of participating in this system, base at least 60 percent of any compensation increase on teacher performance using:
(i) schoolwide student achievement gains under section 120B.35 or locally selected standardized assessment outcomes, or both;
(ii) measures of student growth and literacy that may include value-added models or student learning goals, consistent with section 122A.40, subdivision 8, paragraph (b), clause (9), or 122A.41, subdivision 5, paragraph (b), clause (9), and other measures that include the academic literacy, oral academic language, and achievement of English learners under section 122A.40, subdivision 8, paragraph (b), clause (10), or 122A.41, subdivision 5, paragraph (b), clause (10); and
(iii) an objective evaluation program under section 122A.40, subdivision 8, paragraph (b), clause (2), or 122A.41, subdivision 5, paragraph (b), clause (2);
(4) provide for participation in job-embedded learning opportunities such as professional learning communities to improve instructional skills and learning that are aligned with student needs under section 120B.11, consistent with the staff development plan under section 122A.60 and led during the school day by trained teacher leaders such as master or mentor teachers;
(5) allow any teacher in a participating school district, intermediate school district, school site, or charter school that implements an alternative pay system to participate in that system without any quota or other limit; and
(6) encourage collaboration rather than competition among teachers.
(c) The alternative teacher professional pay system may:
(1) include a hiring bonus or other added compensation to provide students with equitable access to teachers who, consistent with section 120B.11, subdivision 2, clause (3):
(i) are identified as effective or highly effective under the local teacher professional review cycle or, when being considered for hire as first-year teachers, have demonstrated skills during student teaching for being highly effective at closing achievement gaps;
(ii) work in a high-need or hard-to-fill position; or
(iii) are hired to work in a hard-to-staff school such as a school with a majority of students whose families meet federal poverty guidelines, a geographically isolated school, or a school identified by the state as eligible for targeted programs or services for its students;
(2) include incentives for teachers to obtain a master's degree or other advanced certification with at least 18 credits in their content field of licensure required for teaching concurrent enrollment or college in the schools courses, or to pursue the training or education necessary to obtain an additional licensure in shortage areas identified by the district or charter school; or
(3) help fund a Grow Your Own new teacher initiative involving nonlicensed educational professionals, including paraprofessionals and cultural liaisons.
(d) An intermediate school district under this subdivision must demonstrate in a form and manner determined by the commissioner that it uses the aid it receives under this section for activities identified in the alternative teacher professional pay system agreement.
Subd. 2a. Charter school applications; cooperative applications. (a) For charter school applications, the board of directors of a charter school that satisfies the conditions under subdivisions 2 and 2b must submit to the commissioner an application that contains:
(1) an agreement to implement an alternative teacher professional pay system under this section;
(2) a resolution by the charter school board of directors adopting the agreement; and
(3) the record of a formal vote by the teachers employed at the charter school indicating that at least 70 percent of all teachers agree to implement the alternative teacher professional pay system, unless the charter school submits an alternative teacher professional pay system agreement under this section before the first year of operation.
(b) For cooperative unit applications, excluding intermediate school districts, the governing board of a cooperative unit that satisfies the conditions under subdivisions 2 and 2b must submit to the commissioner an application that contains:
(1) an agreement to implement an alternative teacher professional pay system under this section;
(2) a resolution by the governing board adopting the agreement; and
(3) the record of a formal vote by the teachers employed at the cooperative unit indicating that at least 70 percent of all teachers agree to implement the alternative teacher professional pay system.
Subd. 2b. Approval process. (a) Consistent with the requirements of this section and section 122A.415, the department must prepare and transmit to interested school districts, intermediate school districts, cooperatives, school sites, and charter schools a standard form for applying to participate in the alternative teacher professional pay system. The commissioner annually must establish three dates as deadlines by which interested applicants must submit an application to the commissioner under this section. An interested school district, intermediate school district, cooperative, school site, or charter school must submit to the commissioner a completed application executed by the district superintendent and the exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers if the applicant is a school district, intermediate school district, or school site, or executed by the charter school board of directors if the applicant is a charter school or executed by the governing board if the applicant is a cooperative unit. The application must include the proposed alternative teacher professional pay system agreement under subdivision 2. The department must review a completed application within 30 days of the most recent application deadline and recommend to the commissioner whether to approve or disapprove the application. The commissioner must approve applications on a first-come, first-served basis. The applicant's alternative teacher professional pay system agreement must be legally binding on the applicant and the collective bargaining representative before the applicant receives alternative compensation revenue. The commissioner must approve or disapprove an application based on the requirements under subdivisions 2 and 2a.
(b) If the commissioner disapproves an application, the commissioner must give the applicant timely notice of the specific reasons in detail for disapproving the application. The applicant may revise and resubmit its application and related documents to the commissioner within 30 days of receiving notice of the commissioner's disapproval and the commissioner must approve or disapprove the revised application, consistent with this subdivision. Applications that are revised and then approved are considered submitted on the date the applicant initially submitted the application.
Subd. 3. Report. (a) Participating districts, intermediate school districts, cooperatives, school sites, and charter schools must report on the implementation and effectiveness of the alternative teacher professional pay system, particularly addressing each requirement under subdivision 2 and make annual recommendations by June 15 to their school boards.
(b) A district must include the report required under paragraph (a) as part of the world's best workforce report under section 120B.11, subdivision 5.
Subd. 4. Planning and staff development. A school district that qualifies to participate in the alternative teacher professional pay system transitional planning year under subdivision 1a may use up to two percent of basic revenue that would otherwise be reserved under section 122A.61 for complying with the planning and staff development activities under this section.
1Sp2001 c 6 art 2 s 54; 1Sp2003 c 9 art 2 s 8; 1Sp2005 c 5 art 2 s 40; 2009 c 96 art 2 s 26; 2014 c 272 art 1 s 22; art 3 s 17; 2014 c 312 art 16 s 4,17; 2015 c 21 art 1 s 16; 1Sp2015 c 3 art 2 s 29-34; 2016 c 189 art 24 s 8-11; 1Sp2017 c 5 art 2 s 23

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