Hiring Policy
Substitute License(s): Minnesota offers two types of substitute licenses: a Long Call Substitute License and a Short-Call Substitute License that can be issued for two years, or as a temporary limited license. The Long-Call Substitute License requires a valid Minnesota teaching license in the area to be taught. The Short-Call substitute license issued for two years requires either a valid Minnesota teaching license or the completion of a teacher preparation program. The Short-Call Substitute license issued as a temporary limited license requires a bachelor's degree or the equivalent. Short-Call substitutes can teach at any grade level or any subject.
Length of Assignment: Minnesota limits teaching assignments of 15 days to a substitute with a Short-Call license. Substitutes with Long-Call license can teach 15 days or more in the same assignment.
Evaluation of Long-term Substitutes: Minnesota has no requirements for the evaluation of any of its substitute teachers. Minnesota state policy is unclear whether substitutes with a valid teaching license are subject to evaluation under the state's evaluation requirements.
Require long-term substitute teachers to be evaluated.
Minnesota should maintain standards for substitute teacher quality and accountability for all substitutes, but especially for long-term substitutes who are expected to stand in for licensed teachers for extended periods of time. Minnesota can help ensure that substitute teachers are held to high standards and have access to the supports necessary to improve their practice by requiring evaluations—
which it may find appropriate to modify from its standard, state-required
teacher evaluations— of long-term substitutes.
Minnesota declined to respond to NCTQ's analyses.
Research finds that teacher absences negatively affect student achievement and growth.[1] While some of this is attributable to the disruption of regular classroom practices and instruction,[2] it may also be attributable to substitute teacher quality. The gap in instructional quality and daily productivity when a regular teacher is replaced by a substitute teacher is significant.[3] However, absences covered by substitutes licensed by the state are not as detrimental to student achievement as those covered by non-licensed substitutes.[4] Some research hypothesizes that the low-skill level and mobility of substitute teachers may contribute to the reduction in instructional focus and quality and that even when substitute teachers are good instructors, they may be unable to effectively implement a teacher of record's long-term instructional strategies.[5] Parents, teachers, principals, and students have concerns about substitute teachers' quality and qualifications.[6] States should maintain rigorous standards for substitute teacher quality and accountability for all substitutes, but especially for long-term substitutes who are expected to stand in for teachers for long stretches of time.