Supporting great teachers for every classroom

Why This Matters for Minnesota Students

Minnesota students deserve well-supported, highly-effective educators that bring a variety of perspectives and experiences to the classroom.

Policy Solutions

Make targeted improvements to teacher licensure, while maintaining clear pathways for candidates from non-traditional backgrounds

For too long, a broken teacher licensure system favored only teachers trained traditionally in Minnesota; this deterred countless great educators from our schools, ultimately harming Minnesota kids. Thankfully, we helped change this situation and Minnesota became home to a tiered teacher licensure system that creates direct pathways to permanent licensure for teachers trained in other states or through nontraditional preparation programs. 

In recent years, legislation has chipped away at the tiered licensure system, erecting new barriers that are preventing high-quality educators from non-traditional backgrounds from entering the classroom. We must make sure tiered licensure continues to work as intended, getting talented teachers in front of the Minnesota students who need them.

Create innovative and high-quality on-ramps into Minnesota classrooms

To prepare effective educators, fill teacher shortages, increase teacher diversity, and ultimately advance student learning, we need new approaches to teacher prep. Thankfully, in recent years, Minnesota policymakers have taken steps to support creative, proven models for training new educators. For example, the Legislature established an Alternative Teacher Preparation Grant to help promising models—including research-backed, in-service programs—expand or get off the ground in Minnesota. Models like alternative preparation, apprenticeship, and beyond can be extremely effective but require support and investment to succeed—which policymakers should make a top priority to help fill shortage areas and bring educators from all backgrounds into the profession.

Compensate student teachers to improve teacher diversity

Student teaching is a critical component of a prospective educators classroom preparation. However, paid student teaching would ensure no aspiring teachers are kept from the classroom due to their inability to work for 12 weeks without a wage—which is the current student teaching model. Unpaid student teaching is particularly harmful to candidates from low-income backgrounds and those who are supporting their families while completing teacher prep. Paid student teaching, whether universal or targeted to candidates with the most financial need, is a step in the right direction of filling our classrooms with passionate and diverse educators.

Better support aspiring teachers of color

As of 2023, students of color and Indigenous students made up about 38% of Minnesota’s K-12 population, but teachers of color and indigenous teachers made up only about 6% of the total workforce. These gaps have well-documented consequences for student outcomes, especially for Black students. A student is over 13% more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college if they have just one Black teacher between kindergarten and 3rd grade; if they have two within that time period, that rises to a 32% greater likelihood. Despite that, Black teachers make up only 1.5% of the teaching corps in the state of MN. EdAllies convened a Community Action Team to tackle this issue, which released a report that identified barriers and solutions to teachers of color entering the workforce. We must better address financial barriers, dismantle unwelcoming climates, and create sustainable pathways with strong supports to attract, develop, and retain teachers of color.

Measure and address teacher shortages

A 2023 MPR story stated “that between 80-90 percent of Minnesota districts were significantly impacted by teacher and substitute shortages”—and the need is particularly acute for areas such as CTE, STEM, special education, and educators of color. But currently, Minnesota has no universal measurement or definition of “teacher shortage.” The state must create a universal definition and measurement system so we can accurately identify the highest areas of need and track our progress. In addition to clearly defining the scope of the problem, we must develop clear, achievable licensure pathways for prospective educators in shortage areas to ensure a student does not miss out on one of these educators in their classroom.