Zephyrus:  How did you come to be testifying in front of the Minnesota State Senate? 

Ms. Jacqueline Roehl: We have this organization of Minnesota Teachers of the Year, where each summer we have a conference. We met Senator Chuck Wiger, head of the Finance Committee on Education who decides how much money schools in Minnesota will get. He told me that we should get together and talk, so I asked him if I should bring some more teachers of the year, and he said yes, and he’ll bring more senators. 

Zephyrus: What specifically did you testify about before the Senate? 

J.R: We testified for two hours, where we each gave a statement, and then we were open for questions from the senators. A very major theme was the racial achievement gap. The teacher from St. Louis talked about how there was an increased involvement of black and Hispanics in AP and IB classes. Another important topic we talked about was the Pre-AP 10 course, where reading results last year in Edina where the strongest in state. Boys even outperformed girls on the reading test for the first time! Specifically related to Edina, I talked about how many minutes students and teachers spent in class. There is this new law which states that teachers need to count their minutes to achieve a certain amount of time, so we talked about how that was going. We also discussed how teachers use their time for meetings and planning during collaborative Wednesdays.

Zephyrus: With whom did you testify? 

J.R: After a couple months this bloomed into a big thing with twenty senators and six Minnesota Teachers of the Year, plus a very large audience. I was the only teacher ever from Edina, but the others were from St. Louis Park, Winona, St. Paul Schools, Still Water, and District 287, which is a district that does specialty work.

Zephyrus: Were there any really tough questions that the senators asked you?

J.R: Yes, definitely! All of them where pretty tough because its recorded into the Senate record, so everything you say is noted down and you have to really think about what you’re saying. However, we had six of us to answer each question so it wasn’t too hard. The toughest question was when a couple of the senators really wanted to know if teachers were racially conscious enough, or if they had some racist tendencies. We had to be really honest and answer yes, stating that a lot of work in the state still needed to be done regarding that topic.

Zephyrus: You also had lunch with the Governor. How did that go, and what did you talk about specifically?

J.R: At first we debriefed about what we had said in the Senate, and then we kind of just shared some stories. I told him how Representative Keith Ellison taught my class last year and how great that lesson was. Then people just shared experiences or the highlights of their year.

Zephyrus: What do you hope will happen because of what you did?

J.R: We are at a place where practitioners meet policy makers which hasn’t been happening a lot. Usually lobbyists or state departments who don’t have first hand experience in the classrooms are the ones influencing the policies. As an organization by the Minnesota Teachers of the Year, our goal is to testify twice a year and continue to voice our opinions and ideas. I’ve already had an email back from the administrator of the Senate committee saying that the senators loved it so much, and that they want us to come back in a couple months to continue.