1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to education; providing for a value added 
  1.3             assessment program to measure growth in student 
  1.4             academic achievement; appropriating money; proposing 
  1.5             coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 120B.
  1.6   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.7      Section 1.  [120B.362] [VALUE ADDED ASSESSMENT PROGRAM.] 
  1.8      (a) The commissioner of education must develop a value 
  1.9   added assessment program to assist public schools to assess and 
  1.10  report growth in student academic achievement under section 
  1.11  120B.30, subdivision 1a.  The program must provide assessments 
  1.12  that measure growth in student academic achievement by making 
  1.13  longitudinal comparisons in individual student educational 
  1.14  progress over time.  School districts, schools, and charter 
  1.15  schools may apply to participate in the program on a form and in 
  1.16  a manner prescribed by the commissioner.  Program participants 
  1.17  must represent the urban, suburban, and rural geographic areas 
  1.18  of the state with no more than a total of 125,000 students 
  1.19  participating in the program.  
  1.20     (b) The commissioner may contract with a private 
  1.21  organization that provides a "value-added" assessment model that 
  1.22  reliably estimates school and school district effects on student 
  1.23  achievement over time for classroom settings where a single 
  1.24  teacher teaches multiple subjects to the same group of students, 
  1.25  for team teaching arrangements, and for other teaching 
  2.1   circumstances.  The model must be able to accommodate a 
  2.2   diversity of data coming from various test sources even if the 
  2.3   test data are not vertically scaled.  The model must have the 
  2.4   capacity to utilize each student's test data over grades and 
  2.5   subjects no matter how sparse or complete without resorting to 
  2.6   imputation procedures. 
  2.7      Sec. 2.  [VALUE ADDED ASSESSMENT; APPROPRIATION.] 
  2.8      $250,000 is appropriated in fiscal year 2005 from the 
  2.9   general fund to the commissioner of education for the value 
  2.10  added assessment program developed under section 1.