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April 12, 2024
Updates in this email:
The sixth webinar in the MDE and Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College series “Strengthening Community by Lifting the Voices of Indigenous Special Education Staff” will be on the topic of Native Voices Positive Behavior Supports. The event will be held Wednesday, April 24, 2024 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Zoom. CEUs are available. More information is available from MDE State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG) Coordinator Dr. Becky Gerdes.
Register on the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities website for the SPDG Webinar – April 24, 2024 – Positive Behavior Supports: What Does This Mean for Native Children? The Zoom link to the session is sent with your registration confirmation. If you do not receive a confirmation, please verify your email address is current.
MARSS collects student data for the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) from all Local Education Agencies (LEAs). Data collected via MARSS is used for a variety of purposes, including state aid and levy calculations as well as a whole host of other revenue calculations. The data submitted by MARSS coordinators is critical to the ongoing funding of schools in Minnesota. For example, in Fiscal Year 2024 misreporting a single student could result in a loss of the basic formula allowance of $7,138 per student plus the other student driven allowances such as compensatory, gifted and talented, local optional, referendum, etc. Minn. Stat. 126C.10, subd. 2 (2023). The School Finance division has additional information about MARSS and the dedicated staff who manage the data on the MDE website.
Please refer to the MARSS Student Accounting webpage for a memo titled “The Importance of MARSS” for additional information.
MDE Redesigning Assessment Reports
Do you have ideas about how the statewide assessment results, like the MCA results, could be reported to the public, families, and school and district staff? MDE is beginning the process of redesigning the statewide assessment reports. This includes evaluating how student results are organized and communicated across each report (including labels like "does not meet” or “exceeds" the standards and how results are reported for new academic standards). The redesigned reports will be seen for the first time in summer and fall 2025.
Survey Coming April 12
MDE is developing a statewide survey to gather feedback about how various user groups use the statewide assessment results. The online survey will be open for submission April 12–May 19.
You will receive an email on April 12 with the survey link and draft communication messages to support you in sending the survey to your staff and to use in district newsletters or other communications. We value your feedback specifically as district, charter and school leaders. Your expertise and understanding of the uses of these results and reports is invaluable. We appreciate your time in completing the survey as well as sharing the link with your staff and educational partners.
Additional Steps to Gather Feedback
Looking ahead, there will be additional opportunities to provide feedback after the survey closes this spring. We will bring together groups this summer to gather feedback about specific reporting elements. Then, next school year, from September 2024–June 2025, we will organize a series of focus groups to gather feedback on each report planned for the next series of assessments.
Please reach out to mde.testing@state.mn.us with any questions or concerns about the survey or feedback process.
Please share this information with students and families. The revamped FAFSA form – also known as “Better FAFSA” – takes many students less than 20 minutes to complete and can unlock up to $7,395 in federal aid that does not need to be repaid to help cover the cost of college.
Students should submit the Better FAFSA form and can find more information about the FAFSA process on the Federal Student Aid website.
For additional resources, please visit Better FAFSA on the U.S. Department of Education’s website.
Information for the SFY 25 McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth Education Grant Opportunity including the instructions and timelines is now available on the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Competitive Grant Opportunities website. Applications are due on April 12, 2024.
Please contact mde.HomelessEd@state.mn.us for further information.
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